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N€W Z€fllANDS P€RSONfll COMPUT€R MRGRZI 



'ikM-.'.Y 



November .1 984: $2.00 



Computers under $2000 

Comprehensive guide and comparison 



Symphony reviewed — music to the ears? 

-'• Bigger memory at a smaller price 
— the Kaypro hard disk computer 

Columns on 

BBC 

TRS 80/System 80 

Atari 



Spectrum 
Commodore I 
VIC 20 
Sega 

Spectravkfeo 
Apple 
IBM PC 




Hewlett Packard 110 — the Roll 



.<• 



bles? 



FRAMEWORK 

Framework- is trie first of a new generation of 
products that goes oevono todays integrated 
spreadsheets it is an order of magnitude better 
than the original integrated products and windows 

The heart o c Framework is a unique frames 
technology Frames are actually self-contained, 
inter-related displays that can he nested, resized 
and relocated anywhere on the screen. Frames 
bring new flexibility to the way information is 
createo and managed with a PC With tnis truly 
three-dimensional design, the user can create 
infinite logical hierarchies of information, leading 
to as oeep a level of complexity as needed for the 
task at hand There is no limit to the number of 
£ rames that are active m the system Framework's 
user interface is one of 
the most elegant 
designs yet conceived 

Word Processing 

Frameworks word 
processor is dynamite' 
it gives users the choice 
of frame or fullscreen 
viewing of documents, 
multiple margins with- 
in a single file, auto- 
matic justification and 
repagi nation header/ 
footers, page numpers 
and more The stream- 
lined menu system 
helps new users get 
started in a hurry and 
shorthand commands 
help veterans work even 
faster 

Outlining 

The innovative and 
very powerful outline 
processor can oe used 
as a standalone 
organizer or as a com- 
panion co the word 
processor using this 
out me mode Single 
ideas can oe quickly 
captured and then expanded into 
and solutions Any outline-frame 
within an outline can be 
mciuae text 



ASHTON -TATE 




fuller concepts 
or subheading 
nstantlv expanded to 
spreadsheets, graphs or Databases 



finally, with Framework, your PC is truly a thinking 
machine 
Database 

Frameworks database system can be learned 
quickly and out through its paces effortlessly 
because most commands are common through- 
out the entire program Framework itself will 
handle most of your analytical information 
management needs, and if very large data 
handing is required. Framework is fully 
compatible with dBASE \r 

'A 

dBASEii & framework are registered trade mams of Asnton late IBM products are tne registered names of international Business Machines 



Spreadsheet 

Spreadsheets are simple to create, use tra- 
ditional row/column or English-language cell 
addresses, can be linked to automatically update 
other files oased on celt data and have an exclusive 
international numerics feature that vj\\\ change 
entries to accurately reflect changes in currency 
denominations including the placement of commas 
and decimal points. 
Graphics 

The grapnics portion of Framework has been 
designed to produce exceptional charts and 
graphs on standard monochrome monitors Six of 
tne most frequently used business graphs are 
built-in ano can be automatically drawn and 
updated 'rom data in spreadsheets and database 

files 
DOS Access 
The new DOS access 
capability allows any 
user to actually run 
other PC DOS software 
inside -ramework This 
allows users to gather 
data from other pro- 
grams without quitting 
Framework. It will oe of 
great help to people 
who frequently shuttle 
between programs and 
to businesses who per- 
form frequent inter- 
change of programs or 
data with larger 
systems 

custom 
Applications 

Framework comes 
complete with its own 
programming language 
User: can begin writing 
their own custom pack- 
ages or use softvvare 
developers rignt away 
in addition dea.ers will 
continue to receive the 
excellent suopoa that 
has helped make Asnton-Tate tne front-runner in 
tne software industry with d8ASE 1 1 and FRIDAY 
Hardware 

Framewo r k will run on the IBM PC. PC XT and ail 
compatibles it requires just 256K RAM and dual 
360Kb floppy disk drives with monochrome 
display 
Availability 

Framework is available in New Zealand now. 
Contact your dealer for more details or write to the 
Master Distributor : Arcom Pacific. Freepost No 
87. (no stamp required). P.O. Box 852, Hamilton. 



maaa 



. 



ar. 

master distributors 



BITS 6 BYTES 



November, 1984 Vol. 3, No. 2 



ISSN 011 1-9826 



FEATURES 



Buyer's Guide: part one 

Computers under $2000: the round-up. Gordon Findlay runs the rule 
over what's available among computers in this price range, what they 
have, what they do and what they cost. 



Integrated packages 

John Vargo reviews Symphony, the successor to Lotus 1, 2, 3. It was 
sweet music to his ears. See if it strikes the same note with you. 

Hardware reviews 

Shayne Doyle goes walkabout with the new HP1 10 Portable. And he's 

impressed. In fact, he says if he had the spare money, he would give it 

to HP — in return for the computer, of course! Find out why. 

John Slane has got to grips with the Kaypro 10 and its attendant 

software. And he reckons the total package warrants serious thought 

from computer buyers. He explains why. 

Education 

The new Forge and Poly 2 software packages were recently released. 
Pat Churchill went along to see what all the brouhaha was about. She 
reports. 

Business 

Version 7 of the Charter business software series was released in 
Auckland last month. Gaie Ellis reports. 

Beginners 

Gordon Findlay lends a hand in the often confusing business of sorting 
out data. 



14 



47 



34 



42 



47 



54 



COLUMNS 


Three great competitions this 




That vital pit stop 


56 


month: 




Commodore: More selective 




Apple 


74 


input routines 


b/ 


Commodore 64 


55 


IBM: New products 


53 


Spectrum 


66 


Sega: Four logical operators 


70 


Apple: Under the spell of 








Wizardry 


74 


Spectravideo: Moving sprites 


64 


Atari: BC's seven-screen test 


61 


Spectrum: Beta is better 


66 


BASIC tutorial 


62 


Connecting new keyboards 


68 


BBC: Graphics extravaganza 


63 


TRS80/System 80: ENBase's 




Commodore 64: User groups 




impressive sophistication 


69 


- the dealer's friend 


55 


VIC: Read all about it 


59 


REGULARS 








Advertiser index 


76 


Classified advts 


76 


Book Club 


37 


Micro moments 


4 


Book reviews 


71 


Micro news 4 6 8 9 


, 12 




HP110 34 



The second 
round-up 



Computers under $2000 . 14 




r. .'. ■ 



— New Apricots 12 



South Island readers! 



— Christchurch Computer Show catalogue inside 




Kaypro 10 42 



BITS & BYTCS November 1984 1 



6 6/fyou ca n buy any other new 

electronic Daisy wheel 

typewriter with all 
these features at a 
lower price f we'U give you 
double the difference!^ 

The Juki 2200. described internationally as 
"the first Electronic Daisywheel Typewriter to smash the price barrier*' 
is now available in New Zealand for the first time. 





Feature for feature no ether 
electronic typewriter in its class can 
match :t — especially at this "0r.ee- 
Only" Introductory Offer Price: S895; 

JUKI WORLDWIDE SALES 
EXCEED $630 MILLION A YEAR! 
In :he highly-competitive world of 

Japanese electronic technology, Juki 
was recently awarded the coveted 
"Deming Prize' for quality control. 

New to New Zealand, tut certainly 
net to the world. Juki has been 
internationally recognised for the 
quality of its products for ever 4C years. 

Juki — Creating Technology for a 
New Age. 




Normally you'd pay up to 
$2,000 for a machine that can 
boast all the features of the 
Juki 2200! 

If all this sounds too good to 
be true, take up our challenge. 

Shop around. 

If you can buy another new 
Electronic Daisywheel 
Typewriter with all these 
features at a lower price, we'll 

the difference — in cash! 



Feature Chart 

Take it shopping with you and 
prove our offer. 
"No other machine can match it . ." 





Also a Daisywheel Printer 

The Juki 2200 comes 
complete with a "built-in" 
interface (Parallel or Serial 
RS232) to connect to your home 
or small business computer. 
This turns the Juki 2200 into a 
true bi-directional "letter 
quality" Daisywheel Printer. 
With other machines you can 
pay nearly as much as the Juki 
2200 for an optional interface 
attachment alone! ! 



□ 


Daisywheel 

- 13C characters 


D 


Left Ma:g::: 


□ 


T^tm 


U 


Margin release 


n 


?f&t h 


U 


rafie ? r.d indicator 


n 


Paper widu. 
12 n:r.es 


□ 


TacSe: 
Tat Gear 


D 


Frcuinj Wiith 
- 9 r.cnes 


□ 


Rapsa'.Key all keys! 
Endex Key 


n 


Ir.terliiw Space 
- LI 5.2 


L 


Relocate 


n 


Key butter Memory 
- 12 characters 


U 


Scientific signs ar.J s?.<sho.s 
Superscript ar.i Subscript 


□ 


Correction Memory 
— S3 characters 


D 


High Yieli R;bt»n Saver 
cperatior. 


□ 


[.T-pressisn Centre! 
- 2 steps 


D 


Re7erse In lex 


□ 


Surr.ts: of Copy 
-1-3 


L 


Paragraph Anient 


n 


Shift k Shift J3:k Say 


1 


Decir.al lafc 


n 


Tabulator. 


n 




□ 


CarrageH^r. 


u 


A-Wmatic ".""e'er L:r.e 


□ 


Space 




A_'^r.a::: Ctr.iaMif 


n 


Sac* Space 


_ 


Seccr.d Key fi-cari 


n 


Scmoroi Key 


~. 


3-l; r. Interface 
?ar*::9'. .rSenal 


D 


Hal: Space 


: . 


Print Buife: <K 


n 


Express 5acl< Spact 


u 


Bi-iiractior.aj 


□ 


Sigh". Margin 


□ 


Weuflii 

-61kg 6 8fcJ «-.!* h»d 



Why are we 
doing this? 

We're making you this 
outstanding offer to launch our new 
direct selling service 
— Andas Action Line. 

Andas Action Line is backed by 
New Zealand's largest and best- 
known customer service network — 
Andas Engineering — 200 engineers 
in 17 key locations — NATIONWIDE! 

Andas delivers direct to your 
home, business or club within two 
weeks of banking your order! 

All machines carry a 12 month 
guarantee and the Andas Customer 
Satisfaction' card. 

All supplies for the Juki 2200 
are available through the Andas 
Action Line at special low prices. 



r™ ■—--—--—-— -------- ^ 

Send now for the Juki 2200 ^^^^'^^" u ^.-,.,, *» 

14 day "Money back" trial. ----——,;,— 




The Direct Way to Save 



I iiiC..':-.-Ui:i^ ".i.j". I !r.j>' :v.ui-:. ".he :y|.'L-wrn*.'i- :. :•••.::. 
:::>' payir.e:t". will m re'-ndc-d i:. :'uli 



CARD NUMBER 

KXPIRY DATE 

NAMK 






SIGNATURE. 



ADDRESS. 






-8 



BITS & BYTES is published monthly, 
except January, by Bits & Bytes. Ltd. ? 

Head Office: First Floot. Dominion 
Building. 91 Cathedral Square. 

P.O Box 827. Christchurch. 

Telephone GC 566 
Auckland Office: Daytcne House. 53 Davis 
Cresc. P.O. Box 9870. Newmarket. 

Telephone 549 028 (advertising and 
editorial inquiries only). 

Advertising 

Co ordinate)! ^.i.il Crooks telephone 

66-566 Chnstchjrch 

Heprescnt.iii, ■. 

Auckland: 3 .i.il O Donoqhue, telephone 

549-028 ■■;, 699 050 'h-. P Box 

9870 N< wna-kr-i, 

Wellington: Man: HoviKiivi. telephone 
844-985. P.O Box 27-205 

Editorial 

Editor - Neiil BirSS. P O. Box 827. 
Christchurch. 

Programs editor: Gary Parke. 



Represent ;il iv 

Auckland: 

Gaie Fllis totopho-iu 54y 09H 

P 0. Box 987C N( •.•.■v.itk.- 

Wellington: 

Put Chan lull 5 Lin k-invv T/ii'.t ■ 

Khandallah, lelotvwio /9 . I9j -v. 

Shayie Doyle IB ' lu • !-..-. ■■■:<■ Ave-me 

Upper 'li.it. ;.>.:ph.Mv 280 333 

ext. 892 vv: 2/8 545 h 

Merchandise 

Book i:l.ll: .it! SoftW, Il< -l-.il-..;:. ! 

Crooks 



MICRO N6UJS 



. .-.■.■.■. ..v.. 



Subscription 



Subscription rate: 5 12 .: yi.Mi "i ssucsi 

adults nun S10 a yen' Mr school pumis. 
subscriptions beire; fror'i the ssuu of Hits & 
Bytos aftei ibo subscr .peon s rece vwi. 
Overseas subscriptions: 
Siir'<icu mail ">/3 ,i . ■ 
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year: fcorth Aim.-nca and Asa -i/2 a ymu: 
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$94 a year 

Subscription addresses: '/-.'• i---i sending in 
subscriptions please mcl.icc postal itO'les 
lor fie cities. If voi.' I:ih<>l is mcorrecily 
addressed please send t to i.s •.-. it the 
correction marked 

Distribution 

Inquiries: Bookshops Gordon ami 

Gotch, Ltd. 

Computer stores uireci to die 

pulriishcis 

Disclaimers 

Opinions: I he views ol i i ..■ is and olhui 
coetebir.ois me nn| n. .■■•-.-. ,-n, shared by 
the imlilisheis 

Copyright: A.I articles and ptouranis printed 
m this Tia<|a7iiw are nopvri(|ht. They should 
not be sold or passed on to iKin s.ibsei burs 
in any Irwin- ignited oi in tape or tfisk 
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Liability: Alihoiajh material .ised in Sirs & 
Byfcs is checked 'or accu'acv, -io liability 
can hi: assumed for any losses due 'o the 
use of any material n this ma<ia/nie. 

Production 

Production Manager: iJion C-" 

Assistants: Rotjei Browninq Giannm 

Patterson. 

Cover and graphics: Salv Williams. 

Typesetting: ; .. il Point 

Printed: :i Dulled i bv Al ic I Pi 



Opportunity in software 



The Now Zealand software 
industry is alive and growing, and 
the opportunities for New Zealand to 
develop a strong export market with 
locally generated software look very 
promising. 

Annual sales of New Zealand 
written software are around $ 1 5 
million in New Zealand and up to $7 
million overseas, according to an 
initial report from Martin Kaiser, of 
the DSIR's physics and engineering 
laboratory. Mr Kaiser has been 
conducting a survey of the New 
Zealand software industry. 

Most companies responding to the 
survey said they expected sales here 
and overseas would increase 
substantially over the next two 
years. But extra trained staff would 
be needed to develop this growth. 

More than 120 New Zealand 
based organisations are writing 
software for sale, employing up to 
400 people, with a further 200 
employed making updates and 
modifications. 

The low wage rate — compared 
with international rates innovative 
skills and good use of computer 
resources are major strengths for the 
New Zealand industry, according to 
survey respondents. 

However, lack of capital, poor 
marketing and a shortage of 
experienced staff the factors 

which hindered the development of 
the electronics industry here are 
still pinpointed as weaknesses 
hindering the software industry's 
growth in New Zealand. 

Respondents to the survey 
suggested reduced sales tax for 
equipment, improved marketing and 
better targeted software would help 
the industry develop. And most firms 
called for better distribution and co- 
ordinated marketing overseas. 



MICRO MOMENTS 




Mr Kaiser 

Survey results indicated the major 
programming language used in 
BASIC, followed closely by COBOL, 
RPG, program generators and 
software tools. 

A DSIR discussion paper similar 
to that which provided a basis for a 
comprehensive study of the 
electronics industry, its basis and 
potential — is expected to be 
completed by the end of this year or 
early next year. 

Typewriter/printer 

A typewriter/printer will be 
released in New Zealand this month 
by ANDAS. (Private Bag. 
Wellington). 

The Juki 2200 is a fully fledged 
typewriter with a parallel or serial 
interface built in, enabling it to be 
connected to a computer and used 
as a daisy wheel printer (printing at 
10 characters per second). 

When being used as a printer, the 
carriage motion changes to hi 
directional. 

With a price tage of $895, the Juki 
2200 probably ranks as the lowest 
priced letter quality printer available 
in New Zealand. 



BY MATT KILLIP 



TELL ME, MCW LONG HAS YOUR COMPUTER ^ I 
WAD THIS PROBLEM ? 



D 



7ou7. 



... EVER since iT was just a 

LITTLE CVM-CULATDR 




4 - BITS*, BYTFS Novomhoi 198-1 




'rii «f^«. <«', 



I 



iii i 



i I l i l i « 1 I 1 t 1 I 
I I If t II II II t 1 

I I I I I I I I I I J I 

l I I " I " I "I 1 I 1 u 



J 



1 1 



THE PORTABLE. 




(■or years business people had (u choose I'C. IliM PC. XI" ■ -i ;u: IHM v-c ■:np;iii':jK- you'll 

between the power ot a desktop computer and the be glad to know that youi desktop and The 

limited capabilities of the fiiM portables. That 1'ortabie ear talk In eaeli utluT will: tin- M:npie 

|)tul)lei:i was solved when I lewletl Packard inlro addition of the 1 Icwiett Packard Portable 

duced The I'orlahle. Desktop Link. 

The fnrtable is designee! with more total The Portable'- rechargeable batten gives 

memory than most leading desktop personal you Hi hours of continuous usage or. even charge 
computers... liofiK in fact. That includes '17 'IK Finally, you can work conifonab'.y mi a full 

ol use: memory. So. The 1'oilable's built in size keyboard and an easy-to-read 16-knc bv Si) 

business software can work with enormous column sceeii. And it all folds -hut !o turn The 

arm units i if data. I '■■ utable inii > a simple nine |* mnd boy. 

1-2-3 " from I -otns. "America's most |x>pular Tin- I'orlahle. A small miracle... perhap-. 

spreadsheet, file management and busin.es> Hut then consider where it came fnmi. 
graphics program, is permanently buili intoThe See The Portable and the entire farri'.v of 

Portable. Sois Hewlett Packard's word processing personal computers, software and peripheral:- a! 

program. MemoMaker. Just press the ke-y and your authorized Hewlett Packard dealer, 

you're ready to work. In Auckland call HS7- 1 fW.YYellir.glonca!! S7"i I!' 1 .! 

If von use a Hewlett Packard Touchscreen fot the dealer nearest vou. 



1 



Setting Mju Free 

|22] HEWLETT 

mi'HM PACKARD 



I! .- 



-i.-.M. ■ i.i:k- -.1 ].i 



BITS&BY1ES Novcmbe' 1984 



MICRO N€U)S 









Charter Series — Version 7 



By Gaie Ellis 



A comprehensive revision of The 

Charter Series culminated the launch 
of Revision 7 in Auckland last month. 

Presented in upmarket packaging 
with a totally re-written manual, the 
new product includes CP M ad 
MSDOS versions of the debtors' 
package and an MS-DOS version of 
the inventory control and Order 
Processing systems. 

At the launch the managing 
director of Interactive Applications. 
Ltd, Phil Norman, said the revision 
had taken a year to develop and had 
been a much more ambitious project 
than initially considered. Systems 
were completely re-written in some 
cases. 

During the development stages, 
his company had succumbed to 
pressure to release products early, 
particularly to users who wanted 
extra facilities they knew would be in 
Revision 7, he said. 

"Inevitably, this software was not 
robust and was often installed in 
environments where it was being 
tested to its fullest extent. As a 
result, these 'new' products gained a 
reputation for being tender and our 
image suffered." 




& Lotus 

The hardest working PC 
software in the world. 



lor 



, uIJ 



61X70 



P.O. 
I Si, A ik 



OX 1 1 

land. 



91. 

Ph. 32-860 



However, this problem needed to 
be kept in context, he said. Today 
there are 3000 users sites 
throughout Australasia, with no 
more than 50 problem sites during 
the last six to nine months. All the 
difficulties had been remedied. 



Over the past six months, IAL has 
revamped its quality control 
department for checking software 
before release and a number of 
selected sites are used for off-site 
testing with "live data". 




Kerry Moore (loft) from Business World. Hamilton, Clyde Maddock (centre) 
marketing manager for IAL, and Brent Wilkinson of IDAPS Computer Scene 
INZi Ltd, test the new software. 



Integrated Framework 

Framework, an integrated soft- 
ware package encompassing word 
processing, spreadsheets, business 
graphics and database management 
in one program has been released in 
New Zealand. 

Developed for the IBM PC or 
compatible machines, this program 
allows the user to move between 
applications quickly, with a minimum 
of commands. 

It uses an outline as the underlying 
structure for the program whether 
the user is working on multiple 
projects, organising files or jumping 
from spreadsheet to word processor. 

The user can develop windows to 
classify and sort different pieces of 



information and it is possible to see a 
number of frames at any one time for 
sorting on the VDU. 

The word processing mode can be 
used with a couple of keystrokes to 
make notes or write a chapter of a 
business plan; the operator simply 
closes the frame to leave, highlights 
another heading from the outline, 
opens it and starts a new operation. 
Commands are common to all 
frames. 

Written in C, Framework requires 
256K, has up to 32,000 cells limited 
only by RAM and retails here for 
$1450 from Arcom Pacific (NZ), and 
$1447 from The Computer Store 
which is also an Ashton-Tate agent. 



6 BUSS BYTES 



Novombor 1984 



See us for all your 
quality computer needs 



Better value than an Apple II! 



The CA 



; u -■•-■■ 




Powerful 



Compatible . . . 



r-f-rV-l-rri-rVJ- 



because I has odK memory as s'andc J because t's compatible with most 
undistuliyexpar-.aaoie^osuryouineeas II software wn*er. (of the Aoole II computei. 
also otleis o large range oi peripherals lhal means ihai you hove access 'o 
such as disk drives colour monitor and thousands ol progioms. p'ograms lor 
high quality purlers education business 01 leisure 



T 
—pi 



-112 



Versatile 



becouse the Cai is ihe one computer 
you will need lor business education end 
home entertainment. 



ii 295 



Keep it on Cassette! 

Data 
Cassette Tape 

Yes *e ■$ icw I'ocn'ty trip timoas M cioccsset*e 
Computei v*"i*i#0 «" ossoNe tuoe five *n rules oe- 
sioe gives ovei dUK copCCi'y pc s-de 



Cut X-3S02 




$>|50 




High Resolution 
Green Monitor 

Even with Q cotc.n co*npu'*' yOjiifivprele'lOuse 
c. g-eoi scree n -no^i'Of ">s'oac ol a colour mom'ai 
escecifl^v ''ycj re using i* tor ousmoss IhiShiQn- 
resol jfior yreen moniloi l*os a 30cmscioon ono 18 
MHioo'h*: wia"i.grv*igaongrl sha?odi$oiav ever 
O'-Sj-tOiurnnleitTodl-i fesg-ophics' 
COIX-122C - 

«* *449 95 




Budget Daisywheel 
Printer 

i* voo'e iismy you* computer *o' woic 
processing ihis ooisywhfei o< ifor wi'i give you 
loo auaiitvtMir'it g ii B.Jdgt*l price Pnnlsai ie 
cos Offers a Choice, ol J Ditches ;iu <2 "b coi) 
oi^> proportional fakes 5'u'kJci.t fefmjL'et 
pnrtwf^eisondnbbo^ coinages (Oiobio Qurno 
compahble) o^;^•'■ K>ic i ibm*nv« do Vervojmei 
ioo onfy ftfiaSA Stanaoid Cemionies "we 
inflate Sir's '"oil popi.ioi O'l'yu'eiS 

: :•'■?; it 



$ 1135 



Rlbeonconiiagnioi x 32/0PMni©> 
Coixj?? 1 i'VVi 

Ttoc'O' I9©0 attachment 01 shown ctx>vt» 
CotX-3??> S'9!iOC 



DICK^SMITH 
ELECTRONICS 




Xidex Quality 
Diskettes 



If i- 'tew x -!■•« ■•)( g-' fp'ocii*. • '.: s«s "•■' .i level 
■_•' .i.itiv -J---J -"• smli'v p'eviO.iStv tf.kiOW Bef-i 
I s- >-r .-.- :*•■ 'u ••; .- act c •-. i ".•• zt :' • 4 .ii"M 
smooth pollening, ngnter tolerances and an ex*ra 
18 critical *esis emu-e rroi on disks easily exceed 
the ans ' specs tor $6 rpi high density 'ecording 



Single siaea double oensity soft sector 
3o» yl 'D Single Sidt^a c. density so" sector 

:■ ■ iv; 

3c* of 'J Double Sioeo d dens ity soli sector 




BX-80 Dot Matrix 
Printer 

ire BXftO ol'eis n.gn cjuoiiiy speeoy aol mol'i* 
punimy a' o price rgr tower IhOfi ^oT»oci'Qbie 
pnmers 3^ direcnonol c "'•> me lull upper one 
tower cose (wiih iiue dosceritjers) ASC ' 
-h-iiocieise'CtSOcps. ^ii'iioi-'Choracie' Mi<t*hs 
8C columns 2t>4*n/Yi wde oitne* singifi sheer 
(friction leeo) o' ton 'uio (SOioelW 'eeu> Prims 
bi* imocjir grupnics (MC 1 dc's line; 'ospor Js lo 

(SC code scquei'ces 'o* sorwee cont'oi 

Sia'iJO'O Ccnl'on .s hfpe 
inip'*nc«- sui'i t»osi pcovo'j 

-.ompoie'S 
Coi t ,1?68 



$ 



795 



RibtWfl co'liKJgff lot X 3266 pnnloc 

Ca>x-32e« 



;*5»s 



Business Hours 
-.-. •, 1 ■ srjij'i 




M. 
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1 .]-,!.■■.. 

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MICRO N€UUS 



Computing code of ethics 



A Massey University researcher 
wants to know what computer users 
and New Zealand Computer Society 
members think about a code of 
ethics. 

Nick Park, of the university's 
management and administration 
department, is researching a project 
on "Ethical Constraints and 
Computer Use in New Zealand". 

He is particularly keen for opinion 
on codes of ethics and practice, the 
demands for ethical standards, and 
what those standards are, what they 
can be and what they should be. 

"Last year, NZCS members 
rejected the proposed code of 
practice and I can imagine many 
good reasons for this but would 
prefer to have first hand accounts 
rather than to settle for guesswork," 
he said. 

Mr Park is also canvassing views 
on the role computer people should 
take in wider social issues to what 
extent should they pressure and 
what stands should they take on 
such matters as employment issues 
(personally and in the country 
generally), legislation on privacy; 
control of communication 

technology, and microelectronics in 
weaponry. 



Communications should be sent 
to; Nick Park, Department of 
Management and Administration, 
Massey University, Private Bag, 
Palmerston North. 

Confidentiality will be maintained 
in all cases. 



Right connections 

New Zealand's first major seminar 
on connector technology will be held 
in Auckland and Wellington this 
month. 

Organised jointly by the National 
Electronics Development Assoc 
iation and the DSlR. Connector Tech 
is aimed at electrical and electronic 
design engineers, suppliers, users, 
specifiers and purchasers of 
equipment such as computers and 
peripherals or any devices relying on 
interconnecting cables or electrical 
contacts. 

Three keynote speakers from 
overseas will cover topics including 
an update on modern connector 
technology from overseas, 

cable/socket connectors, selection 
and application of connectors, 
commercial design and future 
developments. 



Paul's CATch 




Paul Famularo, of Chanel 
College in Masterton, with the 
CAT computer he won in the 
recent competition run by Dick 
Smith Electronics Ltd and Bits & 
Bytes. 



"If you want to do it right. . . 





The Precision 
Flexible Disks 

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■ • i i •■■ t.i'.Vy I !."; L.-cr-, ..is- '■ y.-araTc.-C!;"! 

XIDEX New Zealand 

Dealer enquiries welcome 



BITS & BYTFS Noviiint;»r 1HH4 



MICRO N€UUS 



School computer study 



A research and development 
programme on the use of 
computers in schools will begin 
next year, the Minister of 
Education (Mr Marshall) told the 
Educational Administration Soc- 
iety in Wellington. 

The aim, he said, was to ensure 
computers were used as 
effectively as possible. The study 
will cover the use of available 
hardware and software, teacher 
training and the linking of the 
primary, intermediate and 

secondary school systems. 

Teachers would be asked for 
their ideas on computer studies, 
teaching material would be sought 
and equipment evaluated. Com- 
puter courses would be developed 
at teachers colleges. 



Lotus 1,2,3 courses 

Argos Data Systems (offices in 
Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, 
Christchurch and Dunedin! is 
offering courses on using Lotus 1 , 2, 
3. 

The two-day courses are designed 
to give participants practical "hands- 
on" experience of using Lotus 1, 2, 
3 and show how the package can 
help management. 

Restricted to a maximum of 12 
participants, the courses cost $385 
and are conducted either on-site (for 
large companies wanting a number 
of personnel to take part) or at Argos 
offices. 

CAD package 

Autocad, an American designed 
computer aided design package, has 
been released in New Zealand by 
Chase Computers. (P.O. Box 6389, 
Auckland!. 

Running on an NEC APC 
computer, the total package 



a 



_Aa i 



COnPUTCBS 
FOR PEOPLE 

NOW ALSO IN 
LOWER HUTT 

69a Rutherford St. Lower Hu! 
Pnone 664-069 
35 Taranak: Si. Wellington 
Phone 847-668. 847-628 



k 



Mr Marshall said the 
government was committed to 
ensuring every secondary school 
was provided with adequate 
computer facilities. A 1983 
survey had shown 96 per cent of 
secondary schools now had 
computers — 1683 machines in 
all. 

The Education Department was 
conducting a survey to find out 
how many primary schools had 
computers. 

Meanwhile Wellington Teachers 
College principal, Miss Margaret 
Malcolm has told the college 
council she believes the college 
could become a centre for 
computer education for teachers. 
The council is to pass the proposal 
on to the board of studies for 
consideration. 



(computer, peripherals and software) 
costs around $25,000 which 
compares very favourably with many 
other existing CAD systems. 

The package is aimed at anyone 
working in draughting and design. 



DXTX 

PROCESSING 

TUTOR 

A Data Processing luior is 
required to teach NZ Certificate in 
Data Processing subjects and to assist 
with the development of a range of 
compute]" courses. 

Applicants must have knowledge 
of programming in COBOL and. at 
least a working knowledge of another 
language. 

The successful applicant will have 
had experience in data processing and 
is expected to assume responsibility 
for a lull-time NZ Certificate in Data 
Processing course. 

Kxperiencc in a commercial 
environment would be an advantage. 

Salary will be within the range of 
SI 5.580 to $28,257 or lor an 
exceptional appointee. $27,521 to 
$30,316 Iplus cost of living 
adjustmenti. 

Applications for this position al 
i lie Maiunvalu Polytechnic close 
«itli tile Principal. Private Ha". 
Palmerslon North at 9.00 a.m. on 
29 November, 1984. Applications 
must be made on form F.25 I 
obtainable from Polytechnics and 
Technical Institutes. Further 
information is obtainable from the 
Manauatu Polytechnic. Phone 
Palmerslon North 67-104. 




THE HOME COMPUTER 
WITH COMPUTING CLOUT — 64K. 

ORIC offers you a 64K Home Computer that you and 
your family can learn to program in Basic — Plus play 
exciting computer games — All at a price you never 
thought possible. 

A wide range of Business, Educational and Games Books 
and Software are available — All designed to let you 
explore the full potential of this remarkable computer — 
Peripherals include, double-sided Disc Drive and Printer 
Plotter — THE PRICE $755. 

For a Free One Information Pack and the name of your 
nearest dealer contact. 

BARR BROS. COMPUTERS LTD. 

P.O. BOX 177 PAPAKURA. 

PHONE PAP. 298-9181. 



BITS & DY~ES 



1984 



I 



I 




maxell 



YEAR 
GUARANTEE 






OF JAPAN 



SETS A NEW STANDARD 
OF EXCELLENCE. 



cixtm 



FLOPPY DISKS 



Maxell meets or exceeds all 
the world's standards. 

ANSI. DIN. JIS, ECMA. IBM and Shugart set the 
standards for the world's floppy disks. When any of 
them issue a spec' you can be sure it is 
meaningful and important. You can be just as sure 
that Maxell meets or exceeds every one of these 
standards. 

Japanese 'Know how' and 
strict quality control is built 
into every Maxell disk. 

Hitachi Maxell Ltd have set up a factory at 
Tsukuba. just out of Tokyo, to specialise in the 
manufacture of Maxell floppy disks. 

The critical first step in making a disk is the 
coating of the polyester film. 

Every step of the Maxell coating process, from 
the blending of the computer-grade magnetic 
powder to the preparation of the sheets of base 
material, is under the strictest control. 

Each magnetic particle on a disk must be within 
certain very strict dimensions and the particles must 
also coat the base material with the exact 
dispersion and density. 

The ideal thickness of the magnetic coating is 
2.5 micromillimeters. At Maxell we are very proud 
to achieve that dimension with plus or minus 0.1 
micromillimeters on every disk. 

It's the most difficult, time consuming, and at 
times, expensive way there is to produce a guality 
disk. But it's the only way we know to make floppy 
disks that really stand up to heavy demands. 

And the guality control goes on - 

* Burnishing is done in special 'clean rooms'. 

* Unique Maxell lubricants are applied to give the 
least possible headwear and provide a 
completely stable output. 

* The rolls of magnetic material are cut and 
punched into precise 8". 5' W and 3V>" 
(Microfloppy) disks. If a hole is misaligned by 
even a tiny fraction of a millimeter the disk won't 
work perfectly. 

* The disks are carefully placed in a non-woven 
rayon fabric liner and a black PVC jacket. This 
protection package' receives an antistatic 
treatment before its permanently sealed. 



That's just the begining - 
then the testing starts. 

At the Maxell Technical Centre we run disks 
under accelerated test conditions actually designed 
to make them fail. After 10 million passes Maxell 
disks show no sign of wear, no sign of dropouts, 
no sign of data loss. None! 

Each and every disk is tested for dropout 
certification; light transmission and magnetic 
retention. We measure it every possible way. For 
shape, thickness and exact hole diameter. Jackets 
and liners are tested as well. 

A new standard of 
excellence deserves a new 
guarantee. You've got it... 
10 YEARS. 

No ifs. No buts. No arguments. 
Compumedia Systems Ltd, guarantee every Maxell 
Floppy Disk (including the new3V Microfloppy Disk) 
for all normal disk drive operations for 10 years. 

Maxell disks are available 
now in N.Z. for every 
major brand of disk driven 
computer and word 
processing system. 

Maxell make it easy. Dealers have a Floppy Disk 
Reference Manual. You can tell at a glance exactly 
which Maxell Disk you need. 
Maxell Floppy Disks - 
From your authorised dealer or contact 

/-ft Compumedia 
^^Systems 



Compumedia Systems Ltd. 

Auckland: P.O. Box 3273. Tel (09) 444-6085. Tlx 60835 

Wellington: P.O. Box 11-091. Tel (04) 851-548. Tlx 3909. 

P1617 




MICRO N€WS 



Brits and pieces 



The networking abilities of the 
BBC micro look set to expand 
further. The Polytechnic of 
Central London now offers a plug- 
in ROM which allows the user to 
flip the BBC into VT-100 terminal 
emulation for use as a mainframe 
workstation. Meanwhile Acorn 
has bought into Torus Systems 
Ltd, also of Cambridge. Torus 
specialises in graphics-controlled 
local area networks and has just 
released its first product for the 
IBM-PC. under the name ICON. 

The British company. ACT, 
which produces both the Sirius 
and Apricot micros, has released 
two major now initiatives on the 
British business market. The first 
is a considerable expansion of its 
Apricot range. This is now 
expanded downwards (to an 
outstanding portable and a low 
cost entry system) and upwards 
to the Apricot XI with a 
transportable, built in 10 

megabyte drive along with a 
double-sided 3^ in floppy. All 
have the standard Apricot 



features but also feature an 
optional mouse, speech recog 
nition and colour graphics. 

These products are scheduled 
for release in New Zealand soon 
but pricing is not yet available. 
Technical aspects apart, someone 
should institute an industry award 
for the computer as art. Unlike 
some PC manufacturers who 
seem to enjoy retired architects 
from Stalin's Russia to design the 
outside of their machines, ACT 
seems to have found a stunner. 

The second ACT initiative is a 
cheap facility for pipelining data 
and programs between Apple's 
IBM-PCs, Apricots and Sirius. 
Apart from the Apple, these 
machines are highly software- 
compatible, with the ACT 
machines generally offering better 
and (non-compatible) disk fac 
ilities to the IBM. 

The product is aimed at 
providing painless, low cost 
facilities for sharing software and 
data between machine types 
rather than full networking. 




FR€€ Disc Holding Box (worth S9.00) 
with every 

10 NASHUA Q % DISCS 



Normal 



OUR 



Description 



Suqqostco 
Retail 


Pnce per 1 C ... 
wilt' Sales Tax Q, >' 


Extn 


"B3t44 


49.96 




tu^oa 


63.42 




T29r&L 


81.48 




Ti-4rO£L 


78.25 




-T26-.-00. 


86.68 




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5 1 V Discettes 

Nasr,i.a Wrim fSSDDi iii.-ntrai r.l 
sectors aad avti.'- p»i ssc'.o: 
i> forma: dependant 

Nasm.a MD7D uSjD) n.imae- of 
lectors ,ria uyles ou' ■a?:':' ■ 
farm?/ cepene.irt 

N.ish.i.1 Ml;?! (L-SCJl ■Hi'"l:i- ;)' 
Se(:lir. ; ?m: hyln=. iiiv ■■< ■::■ • 
lu.niat cupoiic.int 

8" Diskettes 

Nashua FDHiSSX) 26 sal: 
sectors 128 bytes pc ii-clut 

Nasnua I IJ2U (USUU1 8 •■:/: iCCIf: 
102-1 ayte air sector 



CASH with Order PLEASE 

Please make your cheque out to 

Post to: Microcomputer Specialists & Software Ltd 

61 Hobson St. P.O. Box 39-075 
Auckland West. Ph 798-569 




Jfl.l.ll 




H 



The Apricot Fl E 

New Apricots 

Two new Apricot models will be 
officially released in New Zealand 
this month at the Christchurcl 
Show by Barson 
(P.O. Box 36 045 



Computer 
Computers, 
Auckland!. 
The FIF 
processor fa 



with an Intel 80 
true 16-bit processor), 
128K of RAM, one 3.5in single side 
disk (giving 31 5K of storage) and a 
cordless infrared keyboard (shades 
of the IBM PC junior) will retail for 
about $3900 (40 per cent tax paid!. 

This price includes a range of 
software including the operating 
systems CP M 86, concurrent CP'M 
86 and MS-DOS, the applications 
packages. Super-Calc, 

Superplanner, Superwriter and three 
others from ACT (the UK 
manufacturer of the Apricot range) 
plus a number of utilities. 

An Fl version will also be available 
for about $5000. It has 256K RAM 
and a 740K capacity disk drive as 
standard. 

The other model to be released is, 
you guessed it, a portable version of 
the Apricot. 

This has similar specifications to 
the Fl but with the addition of a 80 
by 25 character LCD screen display 
and speech control of software. The 
latter sounds interesting but we have 
no more details at this stage. 

At around $8700 for the standard 
portable version, the API (all these 
model names certainly get 
confusing}, the Apricot portable is 
not cheap but at less than 6kg (or 
about half the weight of an 
Osborne), it will at least be easier on 
your arms than most portables. 

Full reviews of these new Apricots 
will appear in the near future. 



12 BTS&3 V TC5 Nowimtier 1984 



AT LAST 

A GREEN SCREEN MONITOR 

WITH TOP PERFORMANCE* 
AND A REALISTIC PRICE 



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VIDEO INPUT 
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INPUT- 
OC'DC UoIta9e 

Power Consumption 

Outside Dimension 

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AND SOUND BUILT-IN 




Screen Display: 40 or 80 column. 

Power Source: 230V AC or 12V DC. Video and sound inputs — RCA 

Phono sockets. High resolution 35 MHz. Non-glare screen. 

IDEAL for Commodore 64, Vic 20, Spectravideo, BBC, Electron, Sanyo, 
Spectrum, Atari, Apple — in fact almost any computer using a composite 
video output. 

From Specialist Dealers Everywhere 

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME 



■s- 



Proton Electronics Limited 

P.O. Box 33-847 Auckland 9, New Zealand. 
Telephone: (09) 4109-182 Telex: NZ21984 



BITS & BYTES Nov.-.»t„" '98-1 13 



BUV€R'S GUID6 



Bits & Bytes buyer's guide 



- Part 1 : up to $2000. 



Compiled by Gordon Findlay 

In the 1 1 months since the first Bits & Bytes buyer's 
guide was published, the computer market has 
continued its frenetic pace. Keeping up with the comings 
and goings of the various brands is a difficult job, and 
Quite impossible for the novice. There have been several 
significant arrivals on the scene, ranging from the Acorn 
Electron to the AT&T machines. "User friendliness" has 
become the catch cry, and we have seen de-emphasis of 
the keyboard through the touch screen and the mouse. 
These recent arrivals seem destined to be a major 
influence on the future of computer design. While there 
have been significant departures, the long awaited 
"shake out" could scarcely be said to have started yet. 

As last year, the aim of this buyer's guide is to give the 
consumer some help, by summarising the details of as 
many machines as possible. This first part of the guide 
will cover machines costing (retail) up to about $2000. 
The' second part, in the December issue, will cover 
machines costing between $2000 and $7000 in typical 



configurations. The February issue will have a run-down| 
of some of the machines in the $7000 to $14,000 range. 

A cautionary note 

Naturally I have had to start collecting and updating! 
information for this guide some months ago. Two factors 
have affected the prices of computers in the meantime — 
devaluation, which has had effects hard to predict in 
advance, and the extension of the price free7e. Many 
distributors are unable to say what the price will be for 
the next shipment from overseas until it arrives. Most 
New Zealand distributors carry only a small number of 
computers in stock, which makes them particularly 
vulnerable to changes from week to week in the foreign 
exchange markets. 

For these reasons, some distributors have not been 
able to give a price some weeks in advance. So treat all 
prices quoted as a guide only! 



How to buy a home computer 



The first-time computer buyer is 
faced with a wide choice. The first 
essential thing to do is to decide 
what the computer is actually for. 
Is it primarily for use as a games 
machine? For learning program- 
ming? For the children to learn 
about computers? For record 
keeping? After considering the 
uses the computer will be put to, 
consider these questions: 

• Is colour necessary, 
desirable, or a frill? 

• What software is needed. 
and available? If you want to play 
games, rest assured that no 
beginner can write arcade quality 
games! If word processing is your 
thing, you don't want to start by 
writing a text editor. On the other 
hand, if learning to program is the 
main interest, you may not need 
much commercial software at all. 

• Tape or disk? This is always a 
difficult decision, because of the 
two counteracting tendencies: to 
save money, or time. Is a cassette 
tape going to be bearable, or is a 
drive needed? Are microdrives. or 
one of the versions of digital high 
speed tape cartridges produced 
for the machine in which you are 
interested? Some machines use 
ROM cartridges as well! If you 



ever intend using your computer 
to store a lot of data (facts and 
figures, as opposed to programs), 
be sure not to opt for tape without 
seeing it in action first. 

• How good is the version of 
BASIC on the machine in which 
you are interested? Ask some- 
body knowledgeable about this. I 
regularly program in BASIC on a 
number of different machines, and 
it is astonishing how much 
difference there is. If other 
languages are possible, so much 
the better. 

• Always consider carefully 
how much expansion you may 
need. There are two ways of 
looking at this. One is to buy with 
an eye on the future if you 
might want dual disk drives in a 
year or two (or five), buy a 
computer which will allow this 
upgrading. The other outlook is to 
say, "Well, by the time I want to 
expand, there will be new 
computers out, so the first one 
can be sold and a second one 
bought from scratch". The 
second outlook means, of course, 
running the risk that all your 
software becomes useless when 
you change machines. But on the 
other hand, it does mean you will 



keep up with technological 
change. 

• Most important, consider 
support. Support is an all- 
encompassing term, but it 
certainly includes the support of 
the dealer you buy from, written 
material in general magazines and 
specialist publications, published 
programs, user groups, and just 
the general availability of advice 
and help. 

• Ask about service arrange- 
ments, guarantees and so on. 
Insist on knowing where your 
machine can be serviced, and 
about the availability of spare 
parts should anything happen. 

• Consider the price. Of 
course! 

Don't be put off by the jargon 
when buying. Try to learn a little 
bit about what you are interested 
in before you start asking sales 
people questions. Don't expect 
the sales person to always know 
the answers either! Even the best 
informed cannot know all about 
every machine. Of course, some 
don't know much at all. 

It isn't hard to learn the 
fundamentals. To start with, read 
the glossary in each issue of Bits 
and Bytes 



14 



ens & bytfs 



r.ov.-irhi i I! 



Don't buy your children a gift 
buy them a future. 

The Sharp MZ721 Home Computer has been specially 
designed to help beginners use computers for business 

and leisure. 




». A.A.4 



ONLY 

$995 

(with built-in cassette 
recorder) 



rTV 



The Sharp MZ721 comes complete with: 

64k bytes of RAM Optional 4 colour Printer/ Plotter Basic language plus 

Large software selection lull sized keyboard Pascal option 

(including games) Plugs inlo your TV 

Highly versatile, highly sophisticated, easy to use. 
Includes built-in cassette recorder. 




CREATED FOR PERSONAL GROWTH 



For more information contact:- 

Excelsior Supply Co Ltd. Ph: 896-129 Wellington 



GNAI677 



BI1S&BYTES Movitiii... 19R-I 15 



BUV€R'S GUID€ 



Guide to our buyer's guide 



Most of the information in this guide was obtained 
from distributors of the various machines. Other 
information came from our files, and from retailers. Bits 
& Bytes would like to thank the distributors and retailers 
who have helped. 

We started with the aim of including all machines 
available. That ideal soon faded. We were unable to get 
information on a number of them. Machines are 
appearing and disappearing all the time. Where 
information about soon-to-be released machines is 
available, it has been included. 



Prices 

Even in the restricted price range covered this month, 
there is a very wide spectrum of computing power 
ranging from extended calculations to small business 
machines. 

But what is the price of a computer anyway? Should 
the price of a monitor be included? What about a 
cassette recorder or disk? Generally, any price given here 
is for a typical, entry-level "bundle". Almost nobody 
buys an Apple without a disk drive and monitor, so the 
Apple price includes them. On the other hand, almost 
nobody buys a ZX-81 with a monitor, so that bundle 
docs not include a monitor. 

Be careful when reading prices of computers to check 
exactly what is included in the price. Prices do change. 



and discounts are not unknown! Prices quoted are what 
we were given by the distributor or a 'etailer. They 
should only be used as a guide of course. 

A recent, extremely encouraging development in the 
range covered this month has been the appearance of 
special offers, reduced prices for a short time, clearance 
sales, and so on. The computer really has become an 
appliance. 



Availability 

Most machines are widely available, but a few are 
specially imported by a particular retailer or group. Check 
the adverts in Bits & Byres and your local newspaper. 



How to read this guide 

There are really two types of information in the guide. 
The routine information is displayed in tabular form. This 
includes type of processor, keyboard. RAM and ROM 
size, and so on. In the tables, a blank space indicates 
"not known". Some, especially smaller machines, use 
specialised processing chips rather than a general 
microprocessor. 

Other information, specific to each machine, is 
presented in text form. Naturally, in a guide this big 
cannot include everything about a computer' 



we 



New Zealand Educational 
Software for the 
BBC Micro 



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BUVCRS GUID€ 



The second 
round-up 



Hand-helds 

A few years ago, programmable 
calculators were programmed in 
machine code, and had only a few 
program steps and memories. The 
hand-holds are the descendants of 
these: programmable in BASIC, with 
2K to 1 6I< of memory. The chief use 
of the hand-helds is as a powerful 
calculator. Casio, Sharp, Texas 
Instruments and Hewlett Packard all 
make them, and have various 
models, which differ in the amount 
of memory, built in functions (as a 
calculator), provision for 

programming by mini-cassettes. 
magnetic cards or whatever and so 
on. It would be hopeless to try to 
detail all the models here - get hold 
of a catalogue and compare what's 
offered with your needs. 



i i i i \ > i \ 

! I I ! I i II 



! 



' 

Acorn Electron 

A little brother to the BBC? Yes, 
but more than that. The Acorn is 
pretty much a stripped down BBC, 
without some of the interfaces and 
some of the expansion options. It 
uses the same extended BASIC. 
even to the extent of accepting (but 
ignoring) statements relating to 
hardware which isn't supported, 
such as the analog to digital 
converter. All the BBC graphics 
modes are present, with definable 
characters. The assembler is 
included too. 

The keyboard is exceptionally 
good for a machine of this price, and 
includes 10 user definable keys, and 
29 pre-defined keys enable BASIC 
keywords to be entered in a single 
stroke. An elapsed time clock, 
loudspeaker, standard TV, video 
monitor and RGB signals are all 
provided. 

Expansion is mostly through the 
"Electron Plus 1" expansion unit 
which has provision for ROM 
cartridges, joysticks and a printer. 



There are two cartridge slots, which 
are also used for some further 
optional interfaces. 

Most important the Electron has 
good documentation for the 
beginner, and is widely supported in 
magazine, books, software and user 
groups. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, April 
1984. Price: $8/7; Plus 1 expansion 
unit (optional) $299. 



7>_-i\ 



Atari 400 

Still available in Now Zealand, but 
updated in the USA. The small 
amount of stock left does seem to be 
going at a reasonable price. The 400 
has 16K of RAM and 10K of ROM. 
The 400 can lie programmed with 
plug-in cartridges. Atari has provided 
a serial input-output port for major 
peripherals, and four jacks for 
joysticks and paddles. Both TV and 
monitor outputs are provided too. 

Atari is a little unusual in that it has 
no language interpreter in main 
ROM, providing BASIC in a plug-in 
cartridge. Other cartridges allow for 
PILOT, and assembly language. Full 
screen editing, with cursor keys, and 
graphics characters accessible from 
the keyboard are other features. 

The main claim to fame of the Atari 
family has always been graphics 
capability. The 400 provides nine 
graphic modes, with varying 
resolutions, number of colours, and 
number of luminances (intensities of 
colour). These are not independent 
increasing the resolution 
decreases the number of colours and 
intensities you have. Player-missile 
graphics is a concept rather similar to 
sprites, and obviously intended for 
games. Indeed, Atari is noted for its 
games cartridges. Four independent 
sound synthesisers, each covering 
four octaves, with variable volume 
and tone are also provided, to drive 
the internal speaker. 

Price: (16K, no recorder) $399. 



Consolidation 

Tony Paranthoiene has been 
appointed a consultant with the 
Paxus Information Services group in 
a move to consolidate its manage 
ment and acquisition team in 
Australia. 

He was previously managing 
director of David Hartley Computers 



HOW 
TO: 

CRUSH 

CRUMBLE 

HURDLE 

DRAW 

DESTROY 

ACCELERATE 

TORPEDO 

OUTRUN... 

Hold on lo your joystick the new 
EPYX is here With a whole spectrum ot 
computer games unlike any you've 
experienced before 

We call them " Strategy games for the 
action-game player." because they 
combine the best of both action and 
strategy. 1 hey challenge your m nd as 
well as ycur reflexes 

For example, you'll want tc consider 
the consequences oetore acting in 
games l ; ke JUMPMAN '" because i' you 
scale the wrong ladders aliens will 
destroy your Jupiter Command. And 
while you'll make many decisions in 
GATFWAY TO APSHAI. ' none is more 
important than t guring how to get cut 
al ve And Inen there s PITSTOP. " the 
only -oad race game where you'd better 
know when lo retuel and change tires or 
ycu can k ss the winner's c rcie 
goodbye. 

EPYX continues to offer tne strategy 
game standards we ve won awards 'or 
Like the TFMPLb OF APSHAI. * CRUSH 
CRUMBLE AND CHOMP. " and STAR 
WARRIOR * And if it's arcade games 
you re after. Ve away lo your heart's 
content at the outlaws, aliens and sub 
marines in our Arcade Classics series 
There's also a line cf educational games 
appropriately I tied ' Learning Fun" 




Dealer enquiries welcome. 

For further information 
please contact: 

Blackwood Gayle 
Distributors 

P.O. Box 28358 AuCKland, New Zealand 
178 Marua Road, Mt Wellington. 
Telephone - 591-503. 598-142 



GITS * BYTES Novembs' 19H4 



17 



Lost Chance!! 

You've read our round-up 

and we still have available in-depth reviews 

of many of the computers in previous issues. 

But! Order now as stocks are strictly limited. 

— all back issues contain hints and programs 
for popular brands, a host of microcomputer 
information and the following major articles! 



Nov Review of BBC computer and 
Issue 3 Mitxoprofessor 1 , start of 

series on selecting a Tiicrc for 
a srial business, feature or 
mic"OCC-"np'„iers for 
accountants. 

Feb Hand held computer feature. 

Issue 5 review nf Sires 1 and Epson 

HX-20. start, c* farm rig arc 

eoucaucn coiumrs. 

Apnl Rev ew of IBM PC NEC PC 

Issue 7 &G00 arc New Zealand 
made dak drives for 
System 80 New Sord 
column 

\1 i , Computers m business 

Issue 8 feature. Review nf 
Commodore 64. 



June Guide tn farm software. 

Issue 9 reviews of Ol'vetti M20, 

Dick Smith Wizzard, 

V s ealc 

July Reviews o : Soectru~. 

Issue 1 C BMC B3C Suoercalc. 

Compute Mate printer. 
Start c ; Microbee column. 



August 
Issue 1 1 



September 

Vol. 2No.1 



October 
Vol ? No 2 



Reviews of Sord M5 
= ranklm Ace. Mannesmann 
winter Oalcstar Word- 
orocessmg feature. Stan 
of Commodore 64 column. 

Reviews of V220O, 

Colour Genie. Mu.tipian 
Communications feature. 

Reviews of NEC ARC. 

Epson GX 1 C. Casio 
PP 1300 and JP * OC 

1 6 Br. feature. 



May 

Vol '2 



No 8 



November Reviews of Casio PR 1 00. 
Vol 2No.3 Droteus. CromemcoC-10. 



Feb Summary of all computers 

Vol 2 No 5 $5-1 0,000 in N.Z. Reviews 
of Sega. TI99. Franklin Ace 
1 200' and Epson ^X-80 
printer. 

March Reviews of Macmtosn, 

Vol 2 No 6 HP150.Z1 00, daisy wheel 
printers. Program special. 

April Communications feature. 

Vol ? No 7 Reviews of the Electron, 

DEC Rainbow, Pencil II, 

Amust, 



June 
Vol ? 



July 
Vol 2 



No 9 



No '0 



August 
Vol if No 1 1 



September 

Vol 3 No 1 



October 

Vol 3 No ? 



Colour plotters. 
Reviews o' Sanyo 1 6 
bit. Apricot, Televideo 
portable, Casio lap 
computer and Sharp MZ-700 

Printers on the 

market. Reviews of 
Dick Smith 
Challenger. Sord lap 
computer. Atari 600 
and 800 XL. 

Reviews of Dick 
Smith CAT, NEC and 
Tandy lap computers. 
Financial spreadsheets . 

Reviews of 

fandy 2000, 
Tl Professional, 
anr; Eagle 
Wordprocessing feature 

Reviews of Epson 
PX 8. Super 5 
anr: Pinwriter printers 
Lotus". 2. 3. 

Reviews of Mamotecr. 
IBM PC and Tandy 
portables. Visi-On 



Order 1 or more issues for $ 1 each 

(orders of less than 1 issues cost $1 .50 each). 

Clip and post the order form below to Bits & Bytes, Box 827, Christchurch 

or use the form on the bottom of the subscription 

card in the centre of the magazine. 



NAME Please forward issue No's . . 

ADDRESS 

Enclosed is my cheque for $ 



Vice President ot New Technology, Ashton-Tate — Wayne Ratlilf said: 

i Although we have kept all the features ot DBASE II 

that have made it so popular, we rewrote DBASE III in 'C language from the ground up 

to have greater capabilities, storage, speed, power and ease ot use, 

and to take advantage ot the power and technology of 1 6 bit and larger computers.9 



dBASE 




goes 




BETTER 

Features of DBASE ill 

1 . Over 2,000,000,000 records per data base 

2. 1 28 fields per record 

3. Variable length text field up to 4K bytes per 
entry 

4. 4,000 bytes per record 

5. 10 data base files in use simultaneously 

6. Fast internal sort and improved indexing 

7. 1 6 digits of numerical accuracy 

8. Enhanced reports capability 

9. On line help system 

10. Full screen formatting 

System Requirements 

1. IBM PC XT and all PC compatible 
computers 

2. Minimum 256K bytes RAM, two 5'A" floppy 
disc drives 

3. Monochrome or colour display, any printer 
with at least 80 columns 

4. PCDOS 2.0 operating system 

ASHTONTATES'" 



distributed by ^|t 



mMw jrr flisfnriu'iir* A w ImIisj <•» > 



Contact your local dealer for more information or write 
to Arcom Pacific, Freepost 87, P.O. Box 852, Hamilton 

dBASE III and dBASE are registered trademarks ol Ashton-Tato IBM products are the registered names ot International Business Machines 



SU¥€R'S Gim€. 




Atari XL series 

The Atari 600XL and 800XL differ 
only in the amount of built-in 
memory, so can be written up as 
one. The 600XL can be expanded to 
800XL size. These are updates of the 
earlier range in a light, modern style, 
and real keyboards rather than 
membranes. Software compatability 
with the earlier 400 and 800 models 
has been maintained fairly well, so 
many of the remarks on the 400 
model will be pertinent. 

However, perhaps the major 
difference is that BASIC is now in 
ROM in the main unit rather than a 
cartridge, This BASIC has a few 
useful additions, such as the use of 
variables as' targets in GOTO and 
GOSUB statements, The machine is 
often advertised as having 256 
colours - well, 16 colours at 16 
intensities each does make 256 
somethings! 

Numerous interfaces are standard, 
including parallel and serial ports, 
joystick ports, and a peripheral port 
for the addition of any of a very wide 
range of peripherals including 
numeric pad, touch tablet, disk drive, 
joystick, paddles, trak ball, modem 
and so on. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes. June 
1984. Prices: 600XL i16K RAM! 
$599: 800XL I64K) $899; cassette 
recorder $199. 




Atmos 

The Atmos is an upgraded version 
of the Oric-1, The essential 
differences are a full size keyboard 
rather than the calculator style, and a 



The second 
round-up 



newer version of the ROM. Read the 
entry on the Oric for further details. 
Price: $995. 




BBC 

The BBC has attracted a lot of 
interest since its release. In outline, 
its specification is common enough: 
high resolution colour graphics, 
6502 processor, 32K of RAM and so 
on. The special features of the 
"Becb" are a little different. The 32K 
of ROM includes a very powerful 
version of BASIC, and other ROMs 
may be plugged in to give access to 
Pascal and other software. LOGO is 
also available in a rather non- 
standard implementation, as well as 
several other languages. 

There are eight different display 
modes, including one for Teletext. 
The higher the resolution of graphics 
required, the more RAM must be 
devoted to it. This BASIC includes 
potent "structured" commands, and 
the ability to include assembly 
language. Interfaces include 

cassette, serial, parallel printer, TV, 
video monitor, analog channels and 
an extension bus. Expansion options 
are wide ranging, including disk 
drives. networking, a second 
processor, printers, etc. A Z80 as 
second processor gives operation 
under the CP.'M operating system. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, Nov 
1982. Price: cassette based, $1913; 
disk interface $398; disk drives from 
around $900 up. 




Commodore 64 

Not just a big brother to the VIC 
20, the C 64 is a home computer 
with some very interesting features. 
A very large body of software is 
available for it and the machine is 
expandable in hardware to handle 
single or dual disk drives, parallel 
printers, and a second processor, as 
well as the more usual tape recorder, 
TV or monitor, and so on. The 
second processor cartridge, 

containing a Z-80 enables the 64 to 
run CP.M. The USCD p-system is 
also available. Compatability with 
the VIC and earlier PET machines 
isn't perfect, but pretty close, at 
least in BASIC. 

The processor, a 6510, is roughly 
a version of the ubiquitous 6502 
with extra l-'O facilities, Graphics 
facilities include sprite graphics 
which open up a whole lot of 
possibilities. Most graphics 

programming needs to be POKEd and 
PEEKed from BASIC. But useful 
utilities, such as sprite editors, 
extensions to the language and other 
packages, are corning out in the 
magazines all the time, Music is well 
catered for as well. 

The machine includes 64K RAM, 
not all of which is available under 
BASIC !39K). Disk drives are 
"intelligent" — they have their own 
micros to control them — and the 
operating system is in ROM within 
the drive. The drives communicate in 
serial form, rather than the usual 
parallel transmission. An 80-column 
card may be added for serious uses 
such as word processing. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, May 
1983. Price: $975; datasette tape 
recorder $127; single disk drive 
$1080. 




Dick Smith CAT 

This recent newcomer from the 
Dick Smith stable is an interesting 
approach to Apple "compatibility", 
In its own right, the CAT is a nice 



20 



BITS & BYTES November ' 9B4 



SUV€R'S GUID€ 



■.,. . ■■-:-:.■.-.>.- ..•:-:•:•,..;--■ 



The second 
round-up 



small computer, with an extended, 
24K BASIC. ;i numeric keypad and 
eight programmable function keys 
which may have up to three; 
functions each. presumably in 
combination with SHIFT and 
CONTROL. It has an 80 column 
display as standard no plug-in 
board but can operate in 

40-column mode as well. An RGB 
colour output is provided for use 
with a monitor, as well as the 
standard composite video for a TV 
set. A parallel printer interface and 
four sound channels are built in as 
well. 

The CAT on its own is compatible 
with a lot of Apple software, 
although not hardware apparently. A 
lot of Apple programs will run 
directly, and an emulator cartridge 
may be added (at a price) to further 
increase the range of compatibility. 
There still isn't total agreement with 



the Apple, but most programs seem 
to run. A list of programs known to 
be OK is provided by the agents. 

The CAT has available most of the 
sort of peripherals we have come to 
expect, including disk drive (virtually 
essential to gel into the Apple 
software world) and a 780 card. 
allowing use of CPM. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, July 
198-1. Prices: $12913 for the basic 
computer; disk drive and controller 
around $645. 




a fairly usual rubber keyboard, each 
key having multiple functions. It 
comes almost ready to run add a 
cassette recorder and a TV set or 
monitor and it's all on. The other 
standard interfaces are an expansion 
bus, and an expansion connector for 
input and output. A RAM pack may 
be added, and a printer interface is 
available to allow the use of a parallel 
printer. But a printer will cost far 
more than the unit itself! 

The V7200 has two graphics 
modes 63 x 32 in eight colours, or 
1 28 x 32 with just four colours. The 
video display requires 2K of the 
inbuilt RAM, leaving 6K for 
programs. There is a sound effects or 
music channel, on-screen editing and 
inverse video. 

Reviewed in Bns & Bytes, 
September 1983. Price for basic 
unit: $199. 



Dick Smith VZ200 

The VZ200 is a colour computer 

with many standard features and a 
few novelties. The price has fallen 
markedly since this time last year, 
which may be a good or bad sign 
depending on how you read it. It has 



New appointments 

Marin Lobb, who has worked in 
the computer industry in the USA 
and Britain, has been appointed 
company secretary for Interactive 
Applications Ltd. 

Grant Forsyth has been named 
product specialist for the company. 



TAKE A MEMO 



i.WWII|—l» 




CPU Z80A 

Clock 4 MHz 

ROM ?4< 

RAM 3?K. expandacte 

Video RAM IcK 

Languages M7X-3ASIC (inc udrtQ MIX graphics). N 
Z8Q Assembler 

Keyboard 79 ^eys. including keypad aid e°g"l 'urct en 

keys 
Display 2A 'nes of dO chcrccters on "V c mon lor. Jp 

to 16 colours Ucto3?spr,-es Eighl user 

ce'r.ade virtual screens 



I/O 



Cassette port (up to 24CO oaua). Parade I/O 
pod Joystick ports (2). H -' . Monitor. TV. 
Cart'idge D rin"e r (Centronics) 

Options C onmumcalions coord (two "?S23? 

rlerfaces). "?OMs for FOlTH. PASCAL Colour 
50 co UTin coord. Memory coards (32K, 64K. 
I/S><. 256<. 512K). Disc systems. Silicon d sk 
(?56K) 

Cost 



Model 




Suggested Retail 


M i X 500 




S995 


MIX 512 




S1395 


PCX 3 ngle Dr 


-■■e & Inter 


ace S1995 



For furl her informa'ion conlact: 



JOHN GILBERT ELECTRONICS 



Parnell Rise, p .O. Box 37-245. Auckland. Phone 30-839. 



!! rS S BYTES Novcmbf 198"! 21 



GUAR'S GUID€ 




Eaca Coloitr Genie 

Made by the same people who 
brought the very successful System 
80 Video Genio C micro, this is a 
desktop machine, with a full size 
keyboard, high resolution graphics, 
colour, sound, a good version of 
BASIC, and a lot of room for 
expansion. Under a bit of a cloud as 
the original manufacturer has folded, 
but there are lots of rumours about 
who will take over manufacture of 
what is quite a machine for the price 
- which has dropped considerably! 
Locally produced add-ons are 
starting to appear too, as they did for 
the System 80. 

As well as pixel graphics (plotting 
points, lines, circles and so on), the 
Colour Genie has both predefined 
and programmable graphics 

characters. 1 he predefined 

characters are accessed by pressing 
combinations of keys. There are 
eight function keys which may be 
programmed as you wish. As well as 
the usual built in interfaces, the 
Genie includes an audio output to 
supplement the in-built speaker, 
parallel and serial ports, a light pen 
port, and an expansion port for 



* TAPE COPIER 5 • 

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'MAXBYTES nukes a working copy ol programs 
occupying the toll 16K»M8K. 
'Verifies. Repeal copies. Auto, Abort, Program name 
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'Copies HEADERLESS and other types, kneed ALL 
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'Very user friendly and simple to use, with FULL 
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TAPE COPIER S35 TAPE COPIER WITH M/DMVE S45.00 



RODA ELECTRONICS 

P.O. BOX 26-074 

(99 BEECROFT DRIVE) 

AUCKLAND 



The second 
round-up 



software cartridges. Joysticks are 
also available and are built in to a 
numeric: keypad. 

The version of 8ASIC in ROM is 
very complete with a lot of 
commands, rather similar to the 
earlier model, but with the addition 
of sound, joystick and graphics 
functions. The same powerful BASIC 
line editor as found in the earlier 
machine is also provided in ROM. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, Sept 
1983. Price: (32K, excluding 
monitor) $599. 




Epson HX-20 



If the Epson is a representative of 
the "briefcase portables" class a 
small package, battery powered, and 
just the size (in area) of a copy of Bits 
& Bytes. The liquid crystal display, 
like most digital watches, is a four 
line window on a much larger 
"virtual" screen. A small printer is 
even built in! A "real" keyboard, 
typewriter style, has five 
programmable function keys. 
Graphics characters are there too. 

It is programmed in a very- 
powerful dialect of BASIC, with 
more commands than many, much 
bigger computers. Interfaces are 
provided for cassette, a serial 
interface for printer or modem. It has 
a bar-code reader, ROM cartridges, 
and the ability to connect to a 
standard TV set. Expansion options 
listed include a full size printer and a 
floppy disk, but it won't all fit in your 
briefcase then (not with room for 
your lunch anyway!) An acoustic: 
coupler is intended to allow 



communication to others, and to] 
bigger computers. when New 
Zealand gets into the 

communications act properly 
Graphics capability: four lines of 31 
characters in four colours on a TV, oi 
32 by 120 dots on the liquid crysta 
display. 

The HX20 also includes a sound 
generator, and a clock for the time 
and date. 

Reviewed in 8;'rs <S Bytes 
February 1983. Price: $1929.55. 
microcassette, additional $326.61. 
16K RAM in expansion unit 
$357.57. 




Hitachi MB-6890 

The Hitachi "Peach", as it is 
known in Australia, is under $2000 
in basic configuration, but over this 
limit with disk drives. Few machines 
are being used without drives, but 
it's here anyway 1 A middle of-the- 
road machine in every way — 
probably aimed at the small business 
or professional market, but with 
other possible areas of application. 
The keyboard includes the CPU and 
interface for colour and black and 
white video. parallel printer, 
cassette, light pen and serial 
(RS-232'i interfaces. Notice, no TV: 
a modulator would need to be used. 
Most machines are sold with a green 
screen or colour monitor. 

Internally, the machine boasts six 
edge connectors for expansion, and 
two memory sockets, which may 
each have 16K of RAM fitted. There 
are a number of video modes, the 
highest resolution requiring 1 6K of 
user RAM for the screen. Extended 
BASIC is in ROM to support the 
graphics. The Hitachi is well 
supported with business software 
utilities and games. The BASIC 
language is not particularly fast: 
machine code is accessible through 
an assembler. 

I he keyboard has a numeric pad, 
and function keys which are initially 
programmed with common BASIC 
instructions. These may be changed 



22 



HIIS *. HY"ES V 



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kl\ POINTS K) LOOK FOR, 
Computer language. 



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,.- ... 1 ■ • ■ 1 ••■ ■• 

Software. 

' .- . :i ' U-ii.l'i ':.; .1 !V;tl . - ':| '■" 

High resolution colour. 

I: . ' " 1 ••' ' Mi . r ,' " ' .1 I'"' ' 

.,.h ..... .-,,. • . ., . ... ;■. ..-,. 

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3iTS & BYTES NovenDcr 19H4 23 



BUYER'S GUID€ 



■-■-:->:■ 






at will. A CPM card will be available, 
and disk drives, both Sin and 5.25in. 
are available. The dual mini-disk 
drive holds 640K (formatted! data; 
the 8in dual unit has two megabytes 
in total. A light pen is also for sale 
(S520 approx). 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, March 
1 983. Prices: keyboard unit only 
S1775; green monitor $338 524; 
dual mini-floppy drives. $3031; 16K 
RAM card: $225 (required with 
disks); dual 8in disk drives $5724. 




Memotech 

A recent, very stylish import from 

Britain, the Memotech series is one 
of the few British computers to get 
rave reviews in the USA. The styling 
immediately stands out; it is finished 
in matt black metal in a low, long 
case. Inputs and outputs are via 
sockets at the back, and include 
serial and parallel, joysticks and 
audio, as well as an expansion bus. 
The Memotech range uses a video 
processor which gives true sprite 
graphics as well as a reasonably high 
resolution. The cassette interface; is 
quite quick at 2400 baud; disk drives 
are available and even allow the use 
of CP/M. 

Screen layouts are novel, with a 
prompt line at the bottom, below 
four lines for entry and editing. 
Plenty of graphics commands 
enhance a relatively standard BASIC: 
sounds are also well catered for. In- 
line machine code can be used where 
necessary. A certain amount of 
windowing is possible from BASIC. 
Pascal and Forth are options; another 
language, with the unfortunate 
name, NODDY, is supplied and might 
be useful for simple text 
manipulation. Other peripherals 
include disks, an 80 column card. 
and so on. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, October 
1984. Prices: MTX 500 (32K RAMI 
$995; MTX 512 (64K RAM, 
expandable to 51 2K) $1395; floppy 
disk system $1995. 



Buy books 
this month 



24 BITS & BYTES Novnmtier '984 



The second 
round-up 



S£SE» 






•***"**«B» 



Oric 

The Oric -1 is a small colour 
computer which has attracted quite 
a following overseas, and was 
named Home Computer of the Year 
in France (I'm not sure who by). It 
has a calculator-style keyboard, with 
a standard layout rather than the 
multiple functions found on some. 
The BASIC is fairly standard 
Microsoft style, with the addition of 
several statements to control 
graphics, sound effects and music. 
Foreground and background screen 
colours arc set using the familiar 
PAPFR and INK commands; and 
characters may be made double 
height, or flashing. The cassette 
interface has two speeds - 300 or 
2400 baud — and has a name for 
reliability. Graphics dislays are 200 
by 240 pixels, leaving three lines of 
text at the bottom. 

The Oric has a wide range of 
peripherals listed in the catalogue, 
although some may not be available 
in New Zealand. These include a 3in 
disk drive. A parallel printer port is 
standard. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, 
December 1983. Price: (64K RAM) 
$755. 



jR.ma 




Panasonic JR100 

The JR100 is a black and white 
display only computer, with BASIC 
keywords obtained from the 



keyboard using a control key. Tr| 
BASIC is in ROM, and it has 1 6K 
RAM, 64 graphics symbols and I 
user-defined characters, standa-l 
interfaces to cassette, TV anl 
monitor. Each graphics charactel 
may be displayed in inverse video. 

The processor is equivalent to 
6802. Each key has a number ol 
functions: a letter, a keyword (sucl 
as PRINT), a graphics character, and 
often a special symbol. Entry ol 
programs is aided by the screer| 
editor. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, Octobel 
1 983. Price: (no monitor cassette! 
$140. 




Sega 3000H 



A recent (September) upgrade has | 
seen the rubber keyboard version of 
this popular machine replaced with 
an update having a full stroke 
keyboard. Clearly designed with 
games one of the intended 
applications, the Sega has 16K of 
separate memory for use by the 
display. High resolution graphics in 
1 6 colours (225 hues}, and use of 32 
independent sprites are naturally 
being used to produce arcade style 
games. 

The Sega also boasts more serious 
applications. Sega BASIC is quite 
extended, and comes in various 
levels of complexity. Quite a wide 
range of expansion components is 
available, including a disk drive due 
for release in November, The 
distributors have been working quite 
hard to assist users, helping with the 
formation of a magazine, national 
users' group and other forms of 
support. Alternative languages such 
as Pascal. Logo and Forth will be 
available soon, as will an assembler. 
The quality of the implementations 
remains to be seen of course. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, 
February 1984. Price: the advanced 
pack (32K ROM, 26K user RAM. 
level 1MB cartridge and power supply) 



Three 
on One 




MB-3PB 
Single 
Spooler 
For 3 
Computers! 

The AWA MB 5PB Spooler has the unique capacity to 
accept input from 5 separate computers. As a result 
you get optimum use from a single printer whilst 
being able to free up your computers within seconds 
for other work. 

Considerable savings in time, significant savings in 
money and an entirely new streamlined operation. 

The system may be further expanded by installing 
two MB-5PB. series, while the Centronics standard 
ensures compatibility with a wide range of 
computers and printers. 

Three on one! It's a hard act to follow! 

AWA New Zealand Limited 

Data Svstem Division. 

P Box 50-248. iS^. 

WELLINGTON - 

for more information: 

AUCKLAND \*miNGTO!\ CHRISTCHURCH 

P Box 1365. P Box 830. P Box 32-054, 

Phone 760- 1 19 Phone 85 1 -279 Phone 850-449 




HITS* BY I LS Novwmbc- 1984 25 



BUYER'S GUID€ 




The second 
round-up 



Sharp MZ-721 

The Sharp MZ-721 is advertised as 
a "family" computer. In appearance 
it resembles a large calculator with 
some accessories attaching at the 
rear, such as a small colour 
plotter-printer. The computer has a 
large amount of RAM - 64 K and 
very little ROM just 4K. There is 
also 4K of RAM for video. 1 his 
means, of course, that BASIC must 
be loaded from tape at 1 200 baud, 
which takes about three minutes. 
Once BASIC is loaded, the user has 
36. 4K bytes of RAM free. The 
BASIC supplied is fairly standard, the 
main novelty being an included 
machine code monitor. Alternatives 
are said to include Assembler, and 
Pascal. 

There are two graphics characters 
associated with each key in an 8 x 8 
dot matrix, but apparently no dot 
addressable graphics as such, other 
than a very low resolution 80 by 50 
system accessed by SET RESET 



commands, rhe arge numbei of 
graphics characters does allow 
complex designs to be built up, but 
with difficulty. On-screen editing is 
supported by editing keys; there are 
also five definable keys. Other 
facilities include a built in clock (no 
battery backup) and loudspeaker. 
The screen foreground and 
background colours can be assigned 
separately. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, May 
1984. Price: $995. 




Sinclair ZX Spectrum 

The Spectrum is much more; than 

just the colour version of the ZX-81 . 
It has a low profile, plastic: box, with 
a rubber keyboard. The keys have a 



Add Graphics Capability 

—Lil'-if rj 1 .'.'' 1 ;/!', ','JtLlj- 
MICROGRAPHICS »i\ isio.n 



M.YIP-29 A3 A4plot> 



HI PAD 

Diuiijscr 




.INil" \lep -|\v;l 22i|>-. IIKIV 

S pcn> -i>hvi-- lii«h!\ 1 1 : 1 i- 1 . i ;■ c : i : -I l.iiviuii:- 



i 



KDMP-il 



lfa(o)M©i^©[fQ instrument 

"the recorder company" 



/M th Tf, i 



DMP-40— A3 A4 plots. 

'-•'•'■•'U- pen .Iri.in ptivid'i .01)5" Mop 
ir.l.l i ■ciut-a- |)MI' :•'. 



FOR COST 
EFFECTIVE 

RiVorJim; I'loiiim:: 



For further information: 

N.Z. REPRESENTATIVE: 

S.D. M ANDEIMO ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT CO. 

10 WOODHALL ROAD. AUCKLAND 3. PHONE 600-008 TELEGRAMS "NUCLEONIC" 



positive "click" to help in data enij 
Each key has a multiplicity 

functions associated with it: 
functions for 40 keys. The compul 
will sometimes automatically self 
the appropriate meaning; at offl 
times control keys must be usedl 
conjunction with letter keys. 

Sockets at the rear provide i| 
power supply, cassette and 
connection, and for expanse 

peripherals, including ti 

microdrives. The screen is dividl 
into "paper" and "border" aresl 
which may have separate colouj 
specified. Each character can 
printed in any colour "ink", and 
brightness can also be controlled, 
quite a variety of display is possiblJ 

Sixteen graphics characters, anal 
further 21 user-defined characteil 
are provided. The display can also cl 
treated as a grid of 256 x 192 dots 
BASIC contains commands fc| 
drawing lines, circles, and so on. 

In the high resolution mode, 9K o] 
RAM is left to the user in a 16K 
machine. Sound is also supported] 
The machine has two versions, with 
16K or 48K or RAM. Othei! 
expansion options include a thermal 
printer and the "microdrives". high] 
speed digital tape cartridges, acting] 
like a normal disk drive. Software, 
both on tape and published, is 
common. Forth may be used as an 
alternative to Basic, and assembly 
language programming is supported. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, July 
1983. Price: 1 6K $499; 48K $699. 



Software! 

Programs available 

from Games 

to 

Scientific 

(American based) 

for all popular brands 
of computers 

Free catalogues 

Please send large Sfi€ 
to:- 

Pacific Software 

P.O. Box 398 

Timoru 
Telephone 82-016 

Manuals mau be purchased 
separately 



26 BilSKBVTLS Novi!nil:-c " 984 



TAKE A SHORT 

20,000-HOUR 

DRIVE. 




And wave goodbye ic the compctmo 

Preserving "he Shuyar* 71 7. 0u r new 
5.95" iclf-heigni 10 Mbyte W : rd-es;er. 

It's ''Kin oorio'fcnce cc'ioac' fna* 
recedes reiabiiity. Sc much so. I o. tdis*cnces 
,i r;inei ha "' height Wmcheste's. 

Fc r stages, i" "uns a* on M T BF of 
70.000 power -on hours. That's 60% logger 
than oi'nei drives. 

Ana ; -'s loor-y- With 10 Mbyies of 
fomat'ed sto'cge. 

plus io'„i point shock and vibrcion 
no^nhngs, i<>' a very smooth n'ae. And 
ragged enough io ■•. il s'u-a ,.p ic ^0 G's. 

"P-e 712 >s oosod on 3370 flexure 
technology, brnging -naV-ame horsepower 
dew- to size. 

Ana our new, low-mass head design 
complete win o-e-emp is sia'-;:a:u equipmen', 
too. rhis makes flying height more un ;f crrr. 
Ana ,:.a f c. integrity a given. 

An :his was made possib'e by our 
venule grouo approach A specially cha"e:ed 
errgineermg and rronutactu'ing tea'" that 



>ukes su'e * u e ougs are out 'he 
first 'i '-!..' ouh 

A'-a we naKe sure !hey hove everything 
tncy need. Like -l e S-'O rnih'on mves'men* we 
made '<■• capi'al equipment. 

Wnich includes rxxe progressive 
assembly 'ines. Cass lOOc'ean tunneis. Even 
a more advanced spindie motor. 

In she*, everyrhing you r eeo ic singie- 
use r pe'sona 1 computers. Intelligent work- 
s'cions. A-a, down 'he road, muhi fesking 
sc : twcre. 

v ou won't nave to lenveni "he whet: 
eveiy v- .e yo;_ wa"i ;o redesign, either. 
rhonks IC o.,r 1600 corro or wiln built-in 
SCSI. Pius 'he drive level interface standard. 

So -es* tjrve 'he 712 l oday. C-" its 5 
iV.bye version, the 706. 

Con'cc' your loca Wat burton f-ranki 
office and find out now c ill ie drive can ;a'<e 
you a Io' iu'the' . 



Shuqart 

Richt hoir the Start. 



fij 



Warburton Franki 



•■•ii . ,•, :;l iC.i •'■■• '■'■'■ • "■'• :ij«'.t i! 



HU3ARI 



.i:-,i : i»l' : p'H ■"• : ■.•""..•• -■"!■.• '■ > :: I-- - .; I;T 

• A, ".-:.A'.j N .' ' :: ' : ii :- ; .f • ft'l.'. '■'■'•'. '. .' 



BITS & RVTrS November 1984 27 



BUV€R'S GUID€ 



■ ■-■■ 



.:■;.. :■■■:■: 

Mi 




Sinclair ZX-81 

It's probably the smallest, jusi 
about the cheapest, and almost 
certainly the largest selling computer 
in the world. Something like a million 
and a half have boon sold in the 
States (under the Timex Sinclair 
label). But this doesn't mean the 
ZX-81 is not a powerful computer. It 
has a BASIC which is as powerful as 



.-:■:■.. :■:•:•:•:•:• -. :■:■•:. ■.;■:.•. .-.■■. :■■...■.■.■.. 

most; any limitations arise because 
of its size. 

The ZX 81 is small, and there isn't 
room for a real keyboard. Instead, a 
membrane keyboard is provided, 
with each key having a number of 
functions. Basic programs are 
entered as a series of keywords 
there is a key labelled "PRINT" for 
example, and you cannot type the 
five letters individually. The 
computer itself keeps track of which 
function is meant when a key is 
pressed. 

The display has 24 rows by 32 
columns, the bottom two lines 
reserved for program input and error 
reports. A black and white machine 
only, the ZX-81 has a number of 
graphics characters accessible from 
the keyboard, giving low resolution 
graphic facilities. 

An alternative language (Forth) is 
available. Storage of programs is 



"IT IS EASY TO 
GET SPOILED BY 



MSD DUAL DISK 
DRIVES." 

'We love MSD's now dual disk 
drive, the SUPER DISK II The 
programmers at o.ir Lubbock store 
run SUPER DISKS continually tor 
weeks, and they never overtie.it' 
Tins is important to us because we 
develop software lor the 
Commodore and itie t me wo save 
returns as profits 

MSD's highly-reliable single and 
ciua. tiis« drives are at Ine very lop 
ol our list oi recommended 
products Our sales have 
dramatically ncreasea since vvc 
brought MSD products into Our 
stores. 

"Sharon Bray. Micro Worx vice 
president, and I agree thai MSD 
products help -is prov do our 
customers with the very oest 
peripherals tor expanding trior 
Commodores into the real world of 
serious computing. 

"We use MSD products and 
that s enough p'oot foi our 
customers'" 

Lee Wiltrout. Manage; 

Micro Wo.'x. Inc.. Hurst Lubbock Texas 




R3/ 



Commodore owners, now you 
can gain access to expanded 
capability for your computer. 
SUPER DISK II will format, copy, 
and verify in less than 2 minutes, 
a procedure which normally 
takes 30-45. 

Expand into the real world of 
serious computing with MSD 
produr 



icts. 



Distributed throughout New Zealan. 



VC-2 
Dual Drive 

$2490 

Call today for 
your nearest /i 
dealer 



'f 



* II I I I I 



:h 



Hflillll 



306-308 CHURCH ST, PHONE 86696, P.O. Box 51 3 
PALMERSTON NORTH 



The second 
round-up 



cassette tape only, the original 1 K el 
RAM can be expanded with a 1 6II 
package attached to the rear of thl 
computer. A small thermal printe'l 
using aluminised paper, can also !)l 
added. Software, mainly games, ii 
common, and the ZX-81 gets gooc 
magazine coverage. 

The ZX 81 may be getting a b;| 
dated now after all, you can get 
colour computer lor the same price] 
But it's still worth a look if that's al 
you need. 

Price: (1K RAM) normally $199. 
often available at less. 




Sord M5 

The Sord M5 is a compact home 
computer, with colour graphics and 
sound, a rubber keyboard with 
keywords and graphics characters 
on the keys, and provision for the 
most important interfaces. RF, video 
and sound outputs, cassette and 
parallel printer, and an expansion bus 
are standard. The expansion bus is 
intended to service RS 232 output, 
and a 3.5in microfloppy drive. 
expected to be available soon. The 
basic machine has only 4K of RAM. 
and a simple version of BASIC. 
BASIC I (introductory). Two other 
versions, one for graphics support, 
the other with floating point 
(decimal) numbers, are obtainable in 
ROM cartridges. The M5 has sprite 
graphics in up to 32 priority levels. 
Memory can be expanded to 32K 
with plug-in packs. 
$650; family pack i12K user RAM. 
16K ROM. level IMA cartridge and 
power supply) $599; peripherals 
include joysticks $29.95: datasette 
recorder $125; games cartridge 
$39.95; colour plotter printer $470; 
disk drive $995. A keyboard 
conversion kit will be available for 
earlier models. 



8>TS 8 BVTES Novcn-bei Iflits 



WhiteouLLs want to give your 
children an unfair start in life. 



Just because you may not be 100 
familiar with home computers, that's 

no reason to suppose your children 
aren't. Or soon won't be. 

With the Acorn Electron, 
education really does begin at home. 

And Whiicoulls can teach you 
almost everything you need to know 
to get you siarted. In the space of 
just five minutes, you'll see that the 
Electron is more than just a five-day 
wonder. Much more. 




You'll receive a free comprehensive 
insiruciio/i manual and introductory 
cassette containing 15 programmes, 
including a number of exciting 
demonstration games. 

Ii can be used with your own 
television set and most standard 
cassette tape recorders. Simple. And 
extremely versatile. 

The Electron has been designed 
as a development of the original BBC 
technology (a very important 
consideration as more and more 
schools are changing to BBC Basic 
computer language). It has a total 
memory of 64K and can store up to 
32K (32,000 characters). 

High quality, high definition 
graphics are also pan of the Electron 
appeal. 





Choose from one of the biggest 
ranges of software in New Zealand 
— from simple games to educational 
packages to small business aids. And 
it's growing all the time. 

You can also wrile your own 
personal interest programme too. 

NEW DIMENSIONS 
IN CAPABILITIES. 




With the add-on capability of the 
Electron Plus 1, the sky's the limit. 

The joystick input creates new 
game possibilities, while the printer 
output opens up more serious uses 
(word processing, financial calcu- 
lations, etc). 

Plus l's cartridge 
slot also extends the 
Electron's software 
capabilities. 



acorn $ electron 

till I i, i II QXE7 

i I I I iij. \ L,i,l,i_7 
it J i-UI .LL.Lu s j_U 



II you place real value on your 
children's future, you certainly won'l 
find better value than the Acorn 
Electron . . . especially at just 



S877, 



And at Whitcoulls, we've 
made it even more affordable. 



lor iust 



«88 

$11.88 



deposit 



and lJLaOo per week, 
the amazing Electron personal 
computer is yours. Today. At 48 
Whitcoulls stores around the country. 
We think you'll agree that it's a 
very fair price to ensure your 
children gel an unfair start in life. 



Whitcoulls 



860-780 



BITS & BYTES Novembo' 1984 



29 



BUVCR'S GUID€ 



Reviewed in Bits & Bytes. August 
1983. Price: I4K) $495: BASIC F or 
G cartridge $107; expansion unit 
$269. 



i m, -n -« •*> *n ■£» jh -r. *■ 

»IHUl» *-* 8* *"» ' * •* ( - 
f_j p M U !..» <_> LJ '• -■• * 

-■•<•' U «J *J U *.* Uf >*■ 



1 



Spectravideo SV-318 

This is an interesting machine 
the first result of an agreement 

between software and hardware 
manufacturers on the specifications 
for low end eight bit computers. This 
specification, known as MSX, details 
the input-output and graphics 
conventions to be used, without 
binding the designer as to how they 
are to be met. The most noticeable 
feature of the machine is the built-in 
joystick which is part of the cursor 
movement pad. 

A full range of inputs and outputs 
is provided: additional joysticks, 
software cartridges, video and TV 
signals, a cassette port, and access 
to an expansion bus for the addition 
of the very large number of 
peripherals. These include a special 
recorder, floppy disk drives, modem, 
printers and so on. 

The 8ASIC supplied in ROM is an 
extended version of Microsoft 
BASIC, and has a very long list of 
commands, many to support the 
extensive graphics capabilities of the 
hardware. Sprite graphics are fully 
implemented with 32 sprites and 
multiple screens, and it will be 
interesting to see what software 
becomes available utilising the 
hardware. 

The manufacturer is no newcomer 
and has been producing games and 
other software for the Atari range of 
computers and games consoles for a 



The second 
round-up 



long time. Sound is supported too. 
and there are special purpose keys 
on the keyboard for many common 
operations. These function keys are 
redefinable at will. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, 
December 1 983. Price: 32K of RAM, 
power supply, cassette recorder and 
modulator for connection to a TV 
$795. 

Spectravideo 328 

The 328 is much the same 
machine as the 318, but with real 
keyboard, and some special "word 
processing" keys. There isn't a built 
in joystick, which isn't too surprising 
really. You can always plug one in 
the back if you feel like swapping 
WordStar for Pacman! 

Price $1095 (with cassette 
recorder'!. Many peripherals are to be 
had: 64K RAM expansion $295; 
single drive expander $1795; 
80-column card $295 (these are also 
compatible with the 318). 



Tandy model 1000 

The 8K version of the Tandy Model 
100 portable, or lap, computer is 
priced at $1995, so it falls just 
within the price range of this part of 
the guide. But we'll include it with 
the 24 K version, next month. 



If it's micro news in 

Wellington — Phone 

Pat Churchill 797-193 




— — 



_ 



VIC-20 



The VIC-20, by Commodore, 
one of the more widesprcal 
machines. Commodore was, ol 
course, one of the very firsl 
companies in the "personal 
computer" business. The VIC has 
full size keyboard, programmable! 
keys, sound, music, colour graphics! 
Plenty of expansion is allowed fori 
including increasing the initially small| 
amount of memory, the addition of 
disks, a modem, a printer and so on.l 

Colour programming cannot bel 
readily summarised, but] 

fundamentally there are eight] 
colours available for characters,! 
eight for borders, giving 16 for thel 
screen, in various combinations. 
Colours are selected from the 
keyboard. PET-type graphics 
characters are provided, along with a 
programmable character generator. 

The VIC requires a modified tape 
recorder. VIC BASIC is broadly 
compatible with other machines. 
such as the PFT. It includes a full 
complement of commands and 
functions. Sound is catered for with 
three independent generators, each 
covering three octaves. Beyond a 
certain stage, it becomes necessary 
to acid an expansion chassis to 
provide extra plug-in slots. 

Reviewed in Bits & Bytes, 
November 1982. Price: officially 
$465, but available at around $399; 
datasette tape recorder $137; disk 
drives from $1080; RAM expansion 
(16K) $129.95. 



XMAS GIFTS FOR COMPUTER USERS 




5'A" SS.DI) FLOPPY DISKS 

$59.50 



BOX (.)!•' 10 



Olv 



Tolal Cos! 



ORDER NOW FOR XMAS DELIVERY 

Add S1 for postage and packing and send to: Dept bbh.P.C. Power. 420 High Street, Lower Hutt. Telephone (04) 693-050. 



Nane 

ACC'SSS 

City Priors 

30 B.'TS & BYTES Novet\lH!t !98<! 



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61 IS & BYTES Kovon-bor '584 



31 



BUV6RS GUID€ 



Computer round-up 
under $2000 



NAME 
, ... _ . .. 


Acorn 
Electron 


Atari 
400 

6502 

16 

1 10 7 

membrane 

57 

yes 

no 

' 9 " 

24 x 40 

320 x 192 

yes 

29 &256 

definable 


Atari 
XL 

6502 

16 64 

12 

typewriter 

62 

yes 

yes 

16 

24 x 40 

320 x 192 

yes 


Atmos 


BBC 


Commodore 
64 


Processor 


6502 
32 

32 

typewriter 

56 
yes 
yes 

16 

25 x40 

25 x 80 

640 x 256 


G502 
16-64 


6502 
32 


6510 


RAM (K) 


64 


ROM (K) 


16 


32 
typewriter 

73~ 
yes 
yes 

16 

25 x40 
25 x 80 

640 x 250 



yes 

definable 


20 


Keyboard 

No. of keys 
TV interface? 


typewriter 

57 

yes 

yes 

8 

28x40 

240 x 200 

yes 


typewriter 
66 
yes 


Monitor interface;? 


yes 


Colours 

Text display 
(lines x characters) 


16 
25 x 40 


Maximum graphics 
resolution 


320 x 220 


Lower case? 


yes 

yes 
definable 


yes 


Graphics characters 














NAME 


Dick Smith 
CAT VZ200 


Colour 
Genie 


Epson 
HX20 


Hitachi 
6809 

6809 

32 64 


Oric 


Processor 


6502 


Z80 


Z80 


2 x 6301 
16-32 


6502 


RAM (Ki 


64 192 


8-24 


3 2 


16-64 

l 


ROM (Ki 


24 


16 

rubber 


16 

typewriter 


32-64 

typewriter 
68 


24 


16 1 


Keyboard 


typewriter 


typewriter 
87 


calculator 


No. of keys 


81 


45 


58 


57 


TV interface? 


yes 

yes 


yes 


yes 

yes 


yes 

yes 


yes 

yes 


yes 


Monitor interface? 


yes 


yes 


Colours 


8 


8 

24 x 32 

128 x 64 


8 

24 x 40 

160 x 96 


see text 


7 


28 x 40 


Text display 
(lines x characters) 


24 x 40 
24 x 80 

560 x 192 


see text 


25 x 80 
25 x 40 


Maximum graphics 
resolution 


see text 
yes 


640 x 200 


200 x 240 


Lower case? 


yes 


no 


yes 

128 & 128 

definable 


yes 


yes 


Graphics characters 


no 


16 


see text 







Blank means "not known". 



32 BITS & BVTES Nnvombm ■■■•; 



BUY€R'S GUID€ 



NAME 



Processor 

RAM (K) 






ROM (K) 
Keyboard 
No. of keys 
TV interface? 
Monitor interface? 
Colours 

Text display 

(lines x characters) 

Maximum graphics 
resolution 

Lower case? 

Graphics characters 



Panasonic 
JR100 

MN1800A 

16 



rubber 

45 

yes 

yes 

no 

24 x 32 

64x48 



Sega 
3000H 

Z80 

up to 48 

up to 32 
typewriter 
66 
yes 
yes 
16 
24x38 

256 x 192 

yes 



Sharp 
MZ721 

Z80 

64 

4 
typewriter 

69 

yes 

yes 

8_ 

25 x 40 

see text 

yes 



Sinclair 
Spectrum ZX81 



Z80 

16. 48 

16 
rubber 

40 

yes 

no 

8 
24 x 32 

256 x 192 

yes 



Z80 

1 16 

8 
membrane 

40 
yes 
no 

no 
24 x 32 

64 x 44 

no 



Sord 

M5 

Z80 

20 
i4 K user) 



calculator 

53 

^es 

yes 
16 



256 x 192 



yes 



NAME 

Processor 
RAM (Kl 

ROM ;k> 

Keyboard 

No. of keys 

TV mer I nee' 

Monitor interface? 

Colours 

Text display 
limes x characters! 

Maximum graphics 
resolution 

Lower case 1 
Graphics characters 



Spectravideo 
SV318 SV328 



Z80 
32 144 

32 

calculator 
67 
yes 

16 
24 x 40 



780 
80 144 

32 

typewriter 
89 

yes 

16 
24 x 40 



VIC 20 

650? 
5 29 

8 

typewriter 

67 

yes 

yes 

8 

23 x 22 



Mernotech 
MTX 

780 

16 512 plus 

16K video 

24 
typewrite' 
69 
yes 
yes 
14 

24 x 32 



Blank mvutm "not known' 



256 x 192 256 x 192 176.x 158 256 x 192 



yes 
52 



yes 

52 



yes 

64 & 256 
definable 



yes 



SPECTRUM 



QL delayed 

While demonstration models of the 
Sinclair QL seem to be freely 
available in New Zealand (judging by 
the number of people who say they 
have seen a QL in action), the New 
Zealand Sinclair agent, David Reid 
Electronics, won't now be releasing 
the QL for sale until early next year. 

Tfie projected retail price is $2495 
which will put it out of the reach of 
many home users and into the small 
business category. 

A recent survey of British 
industry comments suggests 
there is still good news and bad 
news about Sinclair's new QL 
beast. The good news remains 
largely its price and the 68000 
chip. Reports suggest the bad 
news is the bugs in almost every 
aspect of the initial systems 
released. 



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The PORTABLE: 




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llu-rORIAlM I Wh.it'- in U |,n 

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■ Built-in 1-2-3 Irom l.ulu* 
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■ Sl.iiui.ml 272k user memor\ 

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microprocessor 

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■ Ih-hlH- \ -Ml-vh.ir.H t.T It I > 

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■ (. omnuink\ition> modem and 
sol Iw.irc 

■ Kivll.li'm'.ll'li'. Ii<ll;',-lllc 
KiUorios 




Setting You Free. ^ 

Hewlett-Packard Personal Computers 

>«g 

Please send me further information 
immediately on the MP Portable 

rfamc — — _ 

Address _ __ 

Position _ 

Post to 

Northrop instruments 8c • 
Systems Ltd. 

PO Box 2406. Wellington. 

Tel; 856-658. Telex 1123380 
PO Box 8602. Auckland. 

Tel: 794-091 Telex NZ60605 
PO Box 8.388 Christchurch. 

Tel: 488-873, Telex HZ4203 



Lra@fp{][raiP(o)[o 

INSTRUMENTS & SYSTEMS LIMITED 



D 



HP110 



A portable in the HP 
tradition 



By Shayne Doyle 

Hewlett-Packard has long been 
recognised us a manufacturer of 
quality electronics and laboratory 

equipment, and in recent years, as a 
manufacturer of high quality 
compute! gear. The new HP110 
portable maintains that tradition. 

On opening the case, the first 
impression is of a well made product. 
The computer is fairly compact (1 3in 
x 10in x 3in! and quite heavy at 
8.5lbs. Moulded in a high impact, 
off white plastic, it comes complete 
with a very stylish padded carry 
case, with shoulder strap or 
briefcase style handle. For the well 
heeled, a leather carry case is 
available as an alternative. 

The top two-thirds hinges up and 
contains the 16 x 80 LCD display. 
This section is about an inch thick 
and is held at the desired viewing 
angle by an excellent pair of friction 
hinges - no sag at all. 

The 61 -key keyboard has grey 
keys with wine coloured lettering; 
above these are eight shiftable grey 
function keys, four white cursor 
keys, and three special function 
keys. CAPS and CTRL are reversed 
to the usual and DEL ESC is where 
the left Shift key usually is I kept 
hitting it by mistake. 

The case has two slots at either 
side to allow customised function 
key overlays to be used. The bottom 
right key controls the LCD display 
contrast. The keyboard feels good to 
use. solid and fairly quiet.. with not 
too much "return clack". I feel this is 
an important factor in evaluating a 
keyboard, as keys which emit a 
lound "clack" noise when released, 
can quickly alienate people around 
you. This is especially important with 
a portable intended for use on public 
transport and in meetings. 

Rear connections are provided for 
HP IL interface input and output, 
battery recharger. nine pin RS232 
connector. and telephone 

connection for the in-built modem. 

The display 
comes to life 

On opening the lid and pressing 
any key, the display comes to life 



and the personal application 
manager (PAM) menu screeri 
appears. The display is OK to read in 
bright light conditions, but I found ' 
difficult in low ambient artificial liglv| 
and had to use full contrast all thel 
time. 

Unfortunately, in common withl 
most other lap portables, nol 
provision is made to output video tol 
an external monitor. The top line letsj 
you know how much space is free on] 
RAM disk A. The HP110 has two 
mass storage mediums - up to eight I 
single or four dual external drives can I 
be connected, and there are two 
electronic disks in memory (RAM 
disks A and B). 

RAM disk A is read/write and may 
be used to store programs and data 
files. RAM disk B is read only and 
contains MS-DOS, Lotus 12-3, 
Memomaker, and Terminal Emulator. 
Line four of the display gives a 
percentage of battery charge reading 
and the currently set system date. 
Below this is a row of five blocks 
labelled with the names of the four 
resident software packages, and one 
block labelled "Diagnostics". An 
arrow is moved with the cursor keys 
to point to the desired application 
and RETURN pressed to load it. As 
you may expect, loading software 
from RAM disk is very quick - Lotus 
1-2-3- loads in 2.5 seconds, 
Memomaker 1.5 seconds. 

Delving into the Diagnostics 
program reveals a very complete set 
of self test routines for all 
components of the system. Of 
particular interest is the LCD display 
test which shows well what the 
display can do and proves it is 
capable of very fast response 
indeed. Along the bottom of the 
menu are eight blocks corresponding 
to the eight function keys. 

"File Manager" is for printing and 
deleting files or directories, creating 
and looking at directories, initialising 
new disks, copying and renaming 
files. "Clock Config" sets system 
date and time, maintained by a 
quartz crystal. "Datacomm Config" 
configures both the RS232 serial 
interface and the HP-IL loop 
interface. "System Config" allows 



34 LilTS S HVTLS Ni:v»T.i:.'' ■■wo 



HARDWARE R€VI€UU 




A user's view of the HP1 10 

the user to tailor several system 
parameters, including the mix of 
system memory RAM disk size, 
some printer characteristics, 

alternative display character sets, 
and disk write verify mode. 

Versatile word 
processor 

Memomaker is a simple word 
processor, ideal for producing brief 
documents. Should a fully featured 
word processor be required, then 
WordStar MailMerye CorrectStar 
may be used in addition. Files from 
each system are fully compatible and 
may be edited by the other software 



One of Memomaker's uses is to 
create an alarm schedule file, either 
personal message alarms or program 
run (execution) alarms. Up to eight of 
these can be entered in the file. 
Memomaker is still a versatile word 
processor, having all the block 
manipulation, cut and pasting, 
formatting. file handling etc 
associated with any useful word 
processor program. 

Terminal Emulator enables the 
HP110 to communicate with other 
computers with either the built in 
modem, serial interface, or HP-IL 
interface. Rather than manually 
perform the log-on procedure when 
establishing a link with another 
computer, the logon information 
may be stored together with a phone 
number in a terminal configuration 
file. 

This file will then be automatically 
executed by the HP1 10. It not only 
has the ability to place calls to other 
computers, but it can answer calls as 
well. An auto answer file is created 
containing the answering 

instructions. External modems may 
be used in place of the built-in direct 
connect modem, and may be either 
direct-connect or acoustic modems. 
Files may be transferred to and from 
other computers. 

MS-DOS version 2.11 is resident 
in the machine, but I did not have the 
disk drive to experiment and will 
refrain from commenting, other than 
to say I thought the documentation 
quite good. 

Lotus 1-2 3 rales an article on its 

own, and I refer you to John Vargo's 
review in Bits & Bytes (September 
19841. It is such a comprehensive 



Microcomputer summary 



Name: 

CPU: 

Memory: 

Display: 

Input/Output: 

ROM language: 
ROM software: 



Cost: 
Options: 



Ratings (5 highest): 
/Review unit supplied 



Hewlett-Packard HP1 10 Portable. 
8086 16 bit, 5.33 Mlv clock speed. 

384K bytes CMOS ROM; 272K bytes CMOS RAM; up to 
256K bytes user memory; up to 1 76K bytes RAM disk. 
16 x 80 column flip-up LCD display; 128 x 480 pixel bit- 
mapped graphics; keyboard contrast control. 
Hewlett Packard interface loop (HP ID; RS232c v. 24 v. 28 
serial interface; 300 baud modem. 
Microsoft BASIC. 

MS-DOS version 2.11: PAM (Personal Applications 
Manager); Lotus 1-2-3; Memomaker word processor; 
Terminal Emulatoi. 
SN77409. 

Portable 3. Sin single microfloppy disk drive $1951. 
battery pack for disk drive $141: box of 10 3.5in disks 
$1 24; HP1 50 Extended I/O interface (includes Centronics 
parallel) $366; HP-IL interlace to IBM PC & IBM XT $259; 
portable Thinkjet printer (HP IL interface) $1212; serial 
daisywheel printer $4117; RS232 printer cable $158; 
RS232 modem cable $112: Centronics cable $147; 
leather carrying case $158. 

Documentation 5: ease of use 5: language 3: expansion 4; 
value for money 3; support 5. 
i>v Hewlett Packard NZ Ltd) 



Apple and IBM 

Owners 
Join the Jet Set 




If you own an Apple or IHM 
personal computer, why not 
join the lot Sol 1 The Thinklel 
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Thinkjet 

I he Personal Printer 
from I lewlett-Packard 



Please send me further information 
immediately on the IIP Thinkjet 



flame. 

Address 




Position 
Post to 



Northrop instruments Be 
Systems Ltd. 

PO Box 2400 Wellington. 

I el: 856-658. Telex NZ3380 
PO box 8602. Auckland. 

Teli 794-091. Telex N260605 
ro Box 8388 Christen urch. 

Tel: 488-875. Telex HZ^'203 



ri]©[pQ[fi:[P©ro) 



. 



INSTRUMENTS & SYSTEMS LIMITED 



& BV'CS kovombei 19Bi 



35 



HflRDUJnR€ R€VI€UU 

-'•' •*••■ "-• -- * 

spreadsheet-business graphics-da la 
management system that the range 
of data manipulation commands and 
facilities becomes overwhelming 
once you start following the 
command tree structures around to 
see just what can bo done. I do not 
intend to elaborate on the 
capabilities of Lotus 1-2-3, but 
suffice it to say it is a good choice. 
Other software is of course 
available: Multiplan, WordStar, 
dBASE II, Microsoft Series 
100 BASIC, GW BASIC, Pascal. 
Microsoft Chart for presentation 
graphics, the great adventure games 
Zork I III, and many more. Under the 
MS-DOS directory. I found an MS- 
DOS BASIC Version 5.28. and while 



.,--.. ■ ■..,... 



I have no love for Microsoft's BASIC, 
I did have a bit of a tinker with it. in 
spite of not having the BASIC 
manual. 

As I could not find a way of 
returning from BASIC to PAM, I 
investigated a removable panel on 
the rear of the machine and 
discovered a minute system reset 
switch which does the trick 
admirably! Why it has to be hidden 
away I don't know - obviously HP is 
fully confident the average user will 
never need to use it. 

Using the HP110 is delightfully 
easy. Navigating around the 
software can be done by pressing 
function keys - each new access 
layer redefines those keys and 




Anywhere it can go 
You can go better. 

And it can go anvwhere. 

I Ik- I'OKI'ABI I horn I kwk'ti-l'.KLird. bopiiiMkMted 
computing pouvrinj iiiiu'-pound p.uk,igo. Business 
sutluMiv like I-20 (rum Lotus and word prtK'i'Ssins;. 
Spacious 272K available memory Ml built in. And von 
win Ir.msin work to the 1 II' 150 and .m IBM I'C. . 
I'lie I'ORI'ABI I It runs on rechargeable batteries or AC 
power. I so it til home, (hi 1 office or am \\ here in /j 



^TOWER 

•i><£~ COMPUTING CN.Z.) LTD 



f>o. 13 ■ 2: n 

1 iiiep'i I'lo G1 . "'i 
CHRIS" C^'. !RCH 



l^-JHEWLE 



PACKARD 



displays their new functions, defau 
first. This is a very necessar 
software refinement for anythin 
pretending to be "user friendly 
these days. 

Additional software may b 
"installed" quickly and easily by the) 
user, and will then appear as part ofl 
the PAM menu screen. Very 
comprehensive "help" facilities arel 
provided; every major command has 
an associated help screen explaining 1 
all the sub-commands - just like 
having a built-in reference manual. 
I found the LCD display very fast 
a couple of other lap machines I 
have used were dreadfully slow to 
output a screen, and made using a 
spreadsheet a frustrating process. 
Whether the problem was a software 
or hardware failing, I could not say. 
However, no such delay exists with 
the HP-1 10 - it is almost as fast as 
using a normal monitor. 

The only criticism I have of the 
display - and it is probably as much 
the fault of the program - is that 
when graphing Lotus 1-2-3 data, pie 
charts are compressed too much 
vertically, and if labels are included 
on the display, chaos ensues when 
more than a few data fields are 
graphed. 

In common with most other lap 
portables, the display switches off 
after a present interval - in the HP's 
case, the delay is user-changeable 
from the system configuration 
option. Touch any key and the 
display switches on again. Battery 
use seems to be extremely miserly — 
up to two weeks' normal use off a 
charge, and at 20 per cent charge, 
you are reminded on the PAM display 
to recharge it. At five per cent 
charge, the system locks you out, 
but you are given several weeks to 
recharge before data loss starts to 
occur. 

Inter computer communication is 
well provided for, either by the in- 
built 300 baud direct connect 
modem, or via the RS232 interface 
to your own modem. While I did not 
try the modem, I did connect the HP 
to my Microbee via the RS232 port 
and not having the HP "Thinkjet" 
printer. "printed" through the 
Microbee onto my own monitor 
screen. Provision is made to link 
directly with the HP1 50 

Touchscreen computer and the IBM 
PC. using the optional interface 
converters. 

The companion printer and disk 
drives are quite remarkable; both are 
designed to run off batteries, making 
the whole system truly portable. The 

Turn to page 72 



36 BITSS BYTES MovcriM' 1984 



The BITS 6 BVTES Computer 

Book Club 



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40 CITS & S V TES "J -■-- ■■' "984 



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BITS&BYllh '.• ■.. • — t.--VT ' 38-1 41 



HHRDWflR€ R€VI€W 

KAYPRO 10 



-:-:-:■■ -:--:-. .-.*.-.■- .-.-. 



■■■ ■:■:•:- .. 



An eight-bit total package 



By John Slane 

The Kaypro 10 is a transportable, 
hard disk, Z-80A, 64K computer. 
Other Kaypro models have been 
described previously in Bits and 
Byres. What makes the Kaypro 
interesting to look at again is the 
offering of the total package 
computer plus an enormous 
selection of software. 

Anyone contemplating spending 
several thousand dollars on a 
computer will clearly have specific 
purposes and needs in mind any 
one or a combination of business 
accounting, management, inventory 
and stock control, data storage and 
processing, financial modelling, 
word processing, number-crunching, 
communications, education, prob 
I em solving and other tasks. The 
potential buyer will also have an idea 
of the storage capacity and speed of 
the system and whether future 
expansion is likely. 

With all the publicity and interest 
in the 16-bit machines (and perhaps 
the prospect of owning an IBM) 
maybe the solid eight-bit CP/M 
workhorses are losing the attention 
they might still deserve. Certainly, 
some of the manufacturers and 
suppliers seem to think there is a 
chance they will have their eight-bit 
products ignored. 

It's not from a sense of altruism 
that "free" software is offered with 
their computers it's to entice you 
to buy. And who wins from the war 
of the software hampers? For once, 
I'm pleased to report, it's the 
customer! 



A catch for the unwary 

However, there is a catch for the 
unwary. It's not as simple as looking 
at the computer's price tag and 
counting the number of software 
programs offered. It will be well 
worth the trouble to find out what 



KAYPRO 1 

and all Kaypro models 
available from: 

ABACUS 

The Microshop 

Upstairs The Shades Arcade 

Telephone 794-339 

See our advertisement page 7 

Christchurch Show Catalogue 




The Kaypro 10 

the programs are like and to try to 
judge whether each one in the 
bundle will really be useful to you. 

An impressively large software 
bundle may, in fact, contain 
programs which are poorly designed, 
hard to use and of limited application 
(in spite of a fancy-sounding title). 
Manufacturers distributors will be 
tempted to buy rights as cheaply as 
they can and when this is the 
case, some of the cheap stuff will be 
cheap because it is basically 
valueless. 

These comments apply equally to 
software offerings with 16-bit 
machines, as the software packages 
in that area are also designed to 
attract buyers to one IBM clone 
rather than a competitor. 

As a rule-of-thumb to start, look 
for well-known software names. If 
they are well known because they 
have good reputations, you can be 
reasonably confident. However, be 
careful of the "sound-alikes". They 
may be great. Or they may be very 
inferior versions of a respectable 
original. 

Remember that CP/M is showing 
its age badly. Raw CP/M has never 
heard of humans so humans have to 
think and behave like machines to 
operate it. A substantial amount of 
CP/M software shares this fault — it 
is mindlessly mechanical, linear, 
unnecessarily recursive and basically 
just stupid. Good CP/M software 
insulates the user from the operating 



system and provides economical 
efficient processing oriented to the 
real needs of the user. (Some of the 
1 6 bit software is starting to achieve 
this very impressively.) 

Another serious problem is that 
software may not be customised to 
the particular machine with which it 
is bundled. The purchaser may be 
paying a premium for a special 
keyboard, say one with cursor keys 
but then finds the software still 
thinks cursors have to be moved 
with the E, S, D, X, keys! The 
software manual may have the 
computer's name on the cover, but 
that doesn't necessarily mean the 
two have been matched. 

It was with these matters in mind 
that I was interested in looking at 
what the Kaypro 10 had to offer. 

First, the machine itself. 



Competitor for 
the Osborne 

Kaypro was the first serious 
coinpetitor to the revolutionary 
Osborne, the first cheap portable to 
be offered with bundled software. 
Kaypro mimicked the Osborne 
format but decided it would be worth 
having o bigger case to offer a larger 
VDU. 

I had not used the Kaypro before 
and was pleased to find the 9in 
screen, coupled with text produced 
by an outstandingly clear and 
attractive character generator, was 



42 



3TS & 8YTCJ 



Navuinbflf 1984 



3 



Portable Computer 
Power. 

The Kaypro II is ready to 
go anywhere, anytime, m a 
single, rushed compact 
carry case, easily portable 
at only 1 1 .8 kg, Just plug 
into any Standard power 
socket for instant 
computing power 
whenever you need it. 



Big Keyboard 
Built-in Monitor. 

With the Kaypro II. you .yet a key pad 
that is normally found only on much more 
expensive word processing equipment. The 

keys are 
sculptur- 
ed tor 
your 

handling 
con 

venience 
, and the 
numer- 
ical pad 
includes 





v\\ 



14 keys with its own return. Dedicated 
cursor control keys give you quick access to 
any part of your d sp ay data or text 

And what a display! The large ','" 
diagonal built-in monitor features green 
phosphor characters in an 80 column by ?A 
row display for comfortable viewing. 

The Kaypro II is a complete computer in 
itself. No extras <ire needed. 

Hard to beat Software. 

The Kaypro II System represents 
sensational 
value, with a 
FREX package 
of software 
included An 
instruction disc 
and training 
manuals are 
provided and Ihe 
CP M program 
provides a disc 
operating system which 
supports Perfect Writer 
and allows access to a world 
of software that is standard 
today's market. 




Bookkeeping, accounting and inventory 
Purchasing, engineering lunctions. 
production control and marketing analys - 

The Kaypro II can handle if all 

Powerful Processor. 

The core of the Kaypro II is a /ll OG 
/ SO' micro processor. Paperwork that took 
hours can now be executed in seconds. 

Kaypro II, 4, lOmgb. 

From 200k storage to lOmgb storage 
Kaypro have a system to fiet your business 
on the move. Call your nearest dealer now 
and find out why Kaypro was voted 1983 
European Computer of the Year. 



FROM 




COMPLETE 




open and shut case for your business. 



Available only Irotn 

Auckland: HITEC MICRO I 10 91 Customs Sr Ph. 399 183. 
Christchurch: ABACUS rhe Micro Shop Pli 794 339 
Napier: URADWII L DAI A MANAGLMFN1 Pli 439 016 
New Plymouth: BRlDGt MAN COf-.'PU I INC.. I T I) Pi. ;-.:> 770. 
Wellington: COMPI rFRS FOK PLOHLf lit; Ph 84/668 



For business on the move. 



..-: -.-..• ] i 






ui - <; t. nvTrc 



HflRDUJflR€ R€VI€UJ 



-■■■--'--■' :■:-:■:■. ■--:■:■:■■ ■■■■:■■ ,. ■--.■.•■ -^k-,.-. 



. I ■■ :• . . -"-v. .. . . 



legible without any strain. However, 
the green phosphor has a slow decay 
and I found the ghosting annoying. 
Surely there must be a happy 
medium? 

Graphics capability is available on 
this model through pixel addressing. 
But unless you are a very 
enthusiastic and competent 

programmer, you would probably 
find the graphics process too 
complicated to really be useful. 

All switches, controls and ports 
are on the rear of the case 
inconvenient for reset, power on off. 
and plugging in keyboard. However, 
it's probably very convenient for the 
manufacturer. The front of the unit is 
consequently very bare and 
unattractive; the case and clip on 
keyboard are robustly sheathed in 
metal. Total carrying weight is 
reasonable and it is a genuine 
transportable. 

The keyboard is well designed and 
well constructed except that all the 
keys squeak. This was driving me 
slowly mad until I discovered in an 
obscure part of one of the 21 
manuals that the squeak was a 
"beep" and could be turned off from 
BASIC. I did. After that, just about 
any 1.0 or reset turned the darn thing 
back on again! A zap would fix this 
ask your dealer. It would be nice if 
the dealer could also quieten the roar 
of the fan, but I wouldn't be too 
optimistic. 

I found the Kaypro 10 hard disk 
and single floppy reliable and 
efficient. A variety of tests showed 
the Kaypro 10 benchmark times 
compared favourably with 16 bit 
machines I have tried (and reported 
on iii Bits unci Bytes), except that I 
could not store records in a random 
file if they were longer than the 
default value of 128 bytes. (The 
reason for this had not been resolved 
at the time of writing.) 

In summary, the machine itself 
performed well. A "hard" reset 
meant you could always access the 
power-down routine to park the hard 
disk heads for secure transport 
before turning off the power. 

Apart from CP'M 2.2 and 
BASIC-80, 10 maior software 
programs and a suite of games are 
included in the Kaypro 10 post 
devaluation price of $7255. On a 
head count, that's impressive! The 
machine comes with all these 
installed on the hard disk, although 
inexplicably scattered through nine 
user areas. (The consequence of this 
is that if you are in a user area which 
does not include the program you 
want, the computer is too dumb to 

44 (JHS&a v TES iMovonbor 198<1 



Microcomputer summary 



Name: 

Manufacturer: 

Microprocessor: 

Clock speed: 

RAM: 

User RAM: 

Input/Output: 

Keyboard: 



Display: 
Languages: 

Graphics: 
Sound: 
Cost: 
Software: 



Reviewer's ratings 
(5 of the highest): 
(Review machine supplied 



Kaypro 10. 

Kaypro Corp. California. 
2 80A 8-bit. 
4.0 MHz. 
64K. 

About 30K in Basic. 

Parallel Centronics for printer, 2 RS-232C serial for serial 
printer and modern. 

Detached unit. 72 keys, typewriter style; the 14 key 
numeric pad con be redefined into user programmable 
keys. 

25 x 80 on a 9in screen. 

Everything that is available for CPM 2.2; comes 
provided with Basic-80. C-Basic, S-Basic. 
100 x 160 pixel resolution. 
Inbuilt speaker: beep only. 
Kaypro 10 with everything included: $7255. 
The Word Plus (spelling), Microplan (spreadsheet', 
Superterm (to use modem or feed into another terminal). 
WordStar (word processing), Mailmerge (file merge with 
WordStar), Infostar (data base management). Calcstar 
(spreadsheet), dBase II idata base management). 
Ease of use 3; documentation 4; languages 5; support 5; 
expansion 5; value for money 5. 
by Hitec Micro. Ltd. Customs Si. Auckland, i 



go and look for it you have to look 

for it yourself. See what I mean 
about CP/M.) 

A separate package encloses 21 
supporting manuals plus five quick 
reference command cards. A six 
month (renewable) subscription to 
the company's user magazine. 
Profiles, is also provided. 

The first thing that really 
impressed me was the final result of 
the auto start-up routine. A selected 
menu was provided, but this had 
very little in common with 
conventional menu presentations. A 
cursor-driven highlight moves down 
a single column of choices. As each 
choice is highlighted, a full 
description of what that program is 
about appears on the far right hand 
side of the screen. 

A choice selected by the right- 
arrow moves out of its original 
column, rises to the top, then 
unfolds a sub-menu. A new 
description for each of these choices 
appears on the right as you move 
down the new column. "RETURN" 
actions the choice. Left-arrow folds 
up the sub-menu and parks 
everything back in the original slot in 
the left column. 

The last time I saw such an elegant 
process was when using the new 
Visi On software (for 16 bit and 
500K RAM!). 

But the best part is that by using a 
text editor, you can customise this 
dynamic menu presentation for your 
own selection of programs and your 
verbal descriptions of them. It can 
only be described as brilliant. 

Word processing, data manage 



merit, calc sheet and mailing 
lists/labels are generally the selected 
essentials in bundled software, and 
all these are represented in the 
Kaypro 10 package and listed in the 
data box. 

WordStar is a very well known and 
generally held to be a good example 
of a processing program that will do 
just about everything. But it is 
complicated to use. Users tend to be 
polarised — they either love it or hate 
it. However, the spelling checker 
program, The Word Plus, which 
works in WordStar, is outstanding 
and vastly superior to any other 
spelling checker I have used. 

The author, Wayne Holder, earns 
my utmost respect and admiration 
for an excellent manual and a 
meticulously developed program. 
Spelling correction, look-up, find. 
anagram, hyphenation, homonyms, 
etc. are all fast, efficient and 
accurate. Solving crossword puzzles 
will never be the same again if 
you've got access to The Word Plus 

Two other programs are worth 
special mention. The first is dBASF 
II. This is really an industry standard 
in program generators for data 
management and although compli 
cated and requiring a great deal of 
study to use fully, it is a very 
significant program to be included as 
part of a "bundle". 

The second is Superterm. a 
terminal emulation program for 
communication such as through a 
modem. This is logically very 
appropriate; for a transportable 
computer. 

The other software I found just 



Give your children 
the education 
you never had. 



Take heart. It's not as difficult as you might 
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And it won't necessarily mean sending 
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All you need is PLATO;' the world's 
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PLATO simply uses the 
technology of computer games 
and combines it with the: 
information needed to 
succeed in today's 
world. 

And in the process 
makes learning a 
much more enjoyable 
experience. 



levels and include Fine Arts, Science, Social 
Studies, Mathematics, Languages. Health, 
Computer Literacy and Business 
Education. 

And this list of titles is 





It's a 
combination 
which is already 
proving incredibly successful. 
Extensive trials in America. Australia and 
New Zealand have shown that students on 
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greatly increased knowledge retention. 

As well as PLATO courseware, we bring 
you a broad selection from some of the world's 
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learning. Names like the Minnesota Educational 
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Krell and Cosine. 

The courses range from primary to tertian 1 



growing quickly 
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In other words, the world's most popular 
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Now you can give your children the 
education you want them to have. 

And perhaps learn a thing or two yourself. 



D.R. Briuon I. id. 3 Sydney Si. 

P.O. Box 38400. Peionc. Wellington 

Or telephone Mark Rriuon on 



i()4) 688 066. 




CONTRPL DATA 
PUBLISHING 



O \ riPFN WF 



o 



-o 



MICRO SOFTWARE HIRE CLUB 

OPEN WEEKDAYS & SATURDAY MORNINGS 



Commodore VIC20 & 64 
BBC - SPECTRUM -ZX81 

WRITE OR CALL 

1 5A Porana Raoo. Taknpuna 

(P.O. Box 33- 1 96j Auckland Ph 4448063 



dBEST 



dBASE II is quite simply the best 
selling data base management system 
(DBMS) made tor any computer ever. 

And because it is so powerful and easy 
to use it has become the standard for 
managing data with micro computers. 

Over 150,000 users so far 

Doctors and lawyers, accountants and 
sales people, stock brokers and 
students, researchers and real estate 
companies, big businesses and small arc 
all managing their data better with 
dBASE IP. 

To see how, drop into your nearest 
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demonstration. 

Invest in a copy and take it home. 



ASHTONTATE I 




A DIVISION Of 



Distibutcd by ■MMMBttMHHMBM AlHtlU LAM) K.VI'FRPRISr.S I l'P 

Contact your local dealer for more information or write to: 
Computer Store, Freepost 907, P.O. Box 31-261, Auckland 9. 



HRRDUnre R€yi€UJ 

mediocre to adequate. When I find I 
have done something I need to back 
out of, I am not very impressed by 
being required to type in: "CTRL J, 
CTRL C, CTRL C, A, Y, CTRL C" to 
recover. One of the routines in 
Infostar required me to do that! 



Very impressed overall 



Overall, I was very favourably- 
impressed with the hardware and 
software in the Kaypro 10 package 
and consider it good value for money 
— remembering that for what you 
pay, the Kaypro 10 is up and going 
without buying anything additional 
!VDU is included, for example). 

The same software is offered on 
the next model down, the Kaypro 4, 
which runs two 400K floppies for 
about $2000 less. I prefer the hard 
disk version simply because we are 
working with only an eight-bit 
processor and 64K. 

Because of the limitations of 
memory, large programs and large 
amounts of data have to be broken 
into manageable chunks and loaded 
in and out of disk storage. As hard 
disk access is many times faster than 
for floppies, the speed factor is an 
important compensation for the 
small RAM available. 

This is where the 16-bitters have 
got it all over the eight bit 
processors. With more generous 
addressable RAM, spreadsheets can 
be larger, documents larger and still 
within immediate access, discards 
can be temporarily held in case a 
change of mind wants to bring them 
back, sub-programs can be tucked in 
RAM for instantaneous access, large 
in memory sorts can be done, 
spooling implemented, and so on. 

Most of these facilities can be 
approximated through moving 
information in and out of permanent 
storage less likely to be 

annoyingly slow when the 
permanent storage is hard disk. 

It finally comes down to what a 
user wants to do and how he she 
wants it done. Yes, it is worth more 
than a glance at the eight-bits before 
rushing up to 16. But a 
demonstration of your application is 
probably essential before finally 
deciding. 



HP on the up 



The Hewlett-Packard Company 
has reported a 47 percent increase in 
net earnings and a 35 percent 
increase in net sales for the third 
quarter of the company's 1 984 year, 
ending July 31 . 



46 3!S&S v rs:S NovcmlMr i9B<l 



EDUCATION 



-.-. V. 



■ ■■■.•:■:•:•:■ •:■■ .:■. . .v,-,:-: ,. . 






Learning 'breakthrough' claimed 



By Pat Churchill 

Progeni has launched its new 
computer-based learning system. 
Poly 2 and its now Fourth Generation 
learning software. Forge. 

Forge will allow users to apply the 
concepts of Fourth Generation 
learning without becoming 

programmers or technicians, says 
Progeni's managing director. Perce 
Harpham. 

"Forge is a breakthrough that will 
change, indeed it will virtually 
create, the learning industry," he 
said at the Poly 2 Forge launch in 
Wellington in September. 

"The Forge product is an 
integrated set of five modular units 
dealing with instruction design, 
authoring, delivery, management 
and sequencing. 

While authoring languages on 
micros ate appearing with increasing 
frequency, and programs have also 
become available to help teachers 
manage instruction, Progeni says 
Forge has distinguishing factors: 

• There is no comparable system 
offering an instructional design 
editor. 

• No comparable system offers 
Forge's modularity or the capability 
of the system as a whole to provide a 
capacity for interactive optimisation 
of instruction. 

• The instructional sequence 
editor is the integrating factor. It also 
makes it possible for the teacher to 
use any kind of instructional 
methodology. 

These innovations have 

significance, according to Progeni. 
With a mounting demand for training 
in the new technologies, those 
employed as trainers might not have 
the skills. Those with the skills might 
not be trainers and might be in such 
demand they could not be spared for 
training. 

Time taken to prepare computer 
based training is immense perhaps 
100 hours to develop an hour of 
instruction, even with authoring 
languages. Forge's authoring editors 
enable a person with good typing 
skills to author at the rate of 20: 1 or 
belter. 

According to Dr John Tiffin, an 
instructional technologist recruited 
by Progeni. the Forge authoring 
editors mean there is no more to 
putting the content into computer 
based'training than there is to using a 
word processoi. 

"But it's not just a ciuestion of 




: , , { I . I 



-> ' 









The Poly 2 learning system 

writing text." he said. "There is a 
graphics editor and a music: and 
sound editor. You can call up a 
template for setting a test and 
arrange for it to be marked and the 
marks collated. You can introduce 
other media and edit how ihey are to 
be used 

Dr Tiffin said a learner's progress 
could be charted by the management 
module. This could point up the 
student who was not doing well. It 
might also show everyone was 
having trouble learning a particular 
thing. This could point out the fault 
was not with the learners but with 
the instructional design. 

"The management module allows 
us to see when a failure in learning is 
the student's fault and when n is the 
fault of the instruction. Moreover, 
since we have a precise design, we 
can see precisely where the 
instruction is wrong." 

He described this as a process of 
ii net active optimisation. 

The name. Forge, comes from 
Forth Generation learning 

approaches. 

Dick Greenbank. who is in charge 
ol tin; Poly 2 project, said that while 
all Poly 1 courseware and 
developments would run on the new 
system, Poly 2 was built to serve a 



broader market. 

Mr Greenbank said the most 
advanced electronic and learning 
technologies had been integrated in 
the Poly 2 system. 

Up to 32 units can share disk 
memory and peripherals. Each Poly 2 
features 128K of memory, with a 
portion of this arranged as Ramdisk 
to provide almost instantaneous 
response to user requirements for 
courseware, graphics, data and files. 

Poly 2 can also incorporate other 
media including video tape, laser 
video disk, speech synthesis and 
computer managed audio and slides 
to provide more explicit simulation. 

With the dual operating system 
capability of Progeni's Proteus 
computer, the Poly 2 also provides 
access to commercial and business 
software for use with the CPM 
operating system. 

The new system has a detachable 
keyboard, full QWERTY with upper 
and lower case, 32 keys, function 
programmable. There are six special 
fun :t on keys four cursoi control 
and two dual function editing. There 
are a further six learning support 
keys and a control key. 

The price is $2900 for processor, 
keyboard and monitor. An optional 
high resolution monitor is available. 

BITS & BYTES November 1984 47 



INT€GRAT€D PACKAGES 



Symphony - successor to Lotus 1-2-3 



By John J. Vargo 

Symphony, by Louis Development 
Corporation, .s a fully Integrated package 
incorporating spreadsheet, graphics, 
word-processing, database 

management, and communications 
applications. Integration in this package 
involves both the operating environment 
as well as the individual applications, all 
of which are included in the purchase 
price. 

This program is the successor >.or 
upgrade) to Lotus 1 2 3. one o' the most 
successful spreadsheet programs 
integrating graphics and some database 
functions. This new offering by Lotus is 
a major upgrade to the previous product 
with the addition of a large number of 
new features. 

Symphony's features are truly 
impressive, allowing a flexibility in the 
development of specific applications that 
would be hard to match with most 
standalone packages. Of course, all this 
flexibility has its price in terms of 
complexity, and unfortunately this will 
mean a longer learning curve for the new 



This is the third in a series of articles 
on integrated software involving the use 
of Windows. Last month, the Visi On 
package was reviewed; this month, it's 
Symphony. A review of Open Access 
and Framework will follow next month. 



user. 

When starting Symphony. you 
are placed in the spreadsheet 
environment. In fact, Symphony does all 
of its applications on the "canvas" of a 
large background worksheet. The 
maximum size of the worksheet is 256 
columns by 8192 rows. Although this is 
the theoretical maximum, the real limit is 
far smaller, bound by the amount of 
memory available. 

Symphony 'ollows the Lotus 1 -2-3 
tradition of requiring ali of a worksheet to 
be resident in RAM at the same time. 
This makes for a very fast working 
environment. but it also causes 
unnecessary limitations in the size of 
applications that can be developed. 



For a fairly simple data base with 
name, address, city, country and phone 
number, you probably cannot expect to 
have more than 2000 records on a 51 2K 
RAM IBM-PC. Naturally, if you are going 
10 add 

a few form letters, spreadsheet analysis, 
graphics and communications 

applications to the database in this 
integrated environment the maximum 
size of the database will shrink 
accordingly. 

It is possible to change the working 
environment from the initial spreadsheet 
by selecting from a menu presented 
when the TYPE key ialt-F10! is hit. The 
menu appears this way: 

Using the cursor movement keys lor 
the initial letter of your selection! you 
make your choice, and on hitting the 
(RTN! key. you are in a new 
environment. The environment in which 
you are working determines which 
commands are available to you. 

Two types of main menus are used in 
Symphony. When the F9 key is hit, you 




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INT€GRflT€D PACKAGES 



'•: .v. w. 

enter the SERVICES menu which allows 
you access to a common pool of 
commands '01 file access, printing, 
reconfiguration. and window 

manipulation, li on the other hand, you 
hit the F1C key, this brings up the main 
menu for the environment in which you 
are currently working, with appropriate 
commands for spreadsheet. word 
processing, graphics, etc. 

Symphony uses environment, and 
more than one portion, of a document 
increasing llexibility in viewing and 
manipulating data. 

Because of the complexity of this 
package, the use of the windows is not 
totally intuitive, and new users are 
recommended to acquaint themselves 
thoroughly with the individual working 
environments before starting to use the 
windows. Great care is also required in 
"mapping" out I he application you 
would like to create, limiting each 
working environment to a particular 
portion of the background worksheet, 
otherwise confusion and damage to your 
data may occur . n the most unexpected 
ways when mov ng around in the 
windows and different environments. 

The SHEE ' environment .s very similar 
to Lotus 12 3 and most experienced 
1-2-3 users will adjust very quickly. This 
spreadsheet supports all the usual 
functions including variable column 
widths, replication ol cell contents. 
moving contents, special scientific and 
business functions including internal rale 
of return and statistical functions like 
average, mean, and standard deviation. 

The command menu is quite easy to 
work from and allows direct access into 
the graphics mode. so 

it is not necessary to change 
environments to generate graphs. In 
addition. Symphony acids some new and 
welcome features. Among the most 
notable are: 

• PASSWORD controlled access to 
worksheets and hidden cells which 
increases the security ol the worksheet, 
both globally and within portions of the 
worksheet. 

• STRING handling functions largely 
lacking in 1 ? 3. 

• MACRO LEARN which allows the 
creation of macro command files in an 
automatic mode. If you are in The learn 
mode, the package will automatically 
store every key stroke as you issue 
commands to format, copy, place 
telephone calls, extract and analyse 
data. etc. This is a great improvement 
over working through a problem you 
would like to automate, furiously writing 
down the necessary key strokes, then 
going back and typing in the macro in 
laborious detail. A groat way to creat 
some automation in your spreadsheets! 

• TIME ARITHMETIC functions which 
should allow the automatic execution of 
macros based on the time of day, for 
example auto rlial the main office and 
transmit the day's transactions. 

In total, the Symphony spreadsheet is 
one of the most powerful and 
comprehensive I have seen and although 
it runs a bit more slowly than Lotus 



..-■.:--■ :•:•:-:-: :•-:•:-»»:• -.•:■:-»;■> -»*»: .»:•:■:■:•;.: :•:■»:•.-. .v.\v. .• 

1-2 3. it is faster than much of the 
competition. 



Good word 
processing 



The DOC working environment 
provides good word processing 
capabilities. The usual functions lor 
moving, inserting, anc finding text are 
supported and the ability to assign a 
NAME to a particular format line allows 
easy change of 'ormat. Special print 
characters are supported including bold, 
underline, italics, subscript, superscript, 
and combinations of these. 

These are all supported in a fashion 
similar to WordStar. Eirst. you press 
(Ctrl) B for beginning point of special 
affects, then you press another key to 
specify the particular feature oi 
combination of features that you would 
like. These characters appear on screen 
indicating which special features are 
active, then you press iCtrl! E to end the 
special effects. 



Symphony 



Sy^lcn' l>* 




Since the underlying principle of 
all Symphony applications is a 
spreadsheet, word processing is really 
the manipulation of a series of long labels 
occupying one row each. However, this 
peculiarity of the package lades into the 
background quickly after using it for a 
short while. 

If you would like to incorporate some 
(iata into your document, a lew key 
strokes will move you to the SHEET 
environment and then you can insert 
formulas or copy data from the 
underlying worksheet. These inserted 
numbers will automatically be updated 
whenever any data is changed in the 
related spreadsheet or database. A few 
more key strokes and you are back in the 
DOC mode and you can carry on with 
word processing. The ability to include 
spreadsheet data in a document with 
automatic updating is a real plus for 
many applications. 

Another useful feature is Symphony's 
ability to name store and retrieve 
boilerplate text from both the current 
worksheet as well as from separate files. 
In addition, it is possible to assign a 
keyboard macro to often used phrases 
and retrieve the text with a few key 
strokes. 

The special function keys include 
those for centring text iAIti F4, for taking 
an active window and blowing it up to 



lull screen size (the zoom key lAln F6i. 
and others which are used in the five 
different working environments. In total, 
there are 20 special function key 
assignments, incorporating El to FIG 
and (Alt! F1 to (Alii l~10. This could 
prove a bit confusing except for the fact 
that Symphony comes with a key 
template which fits over the special 
function keys, "clearly describing the 
functions they perform. 

The editing features work very well, 
allowing speed highlighting of a range of 
text to be moved, deleted and so forth. 
When in edit mode, you may use either 
the cursor control keys or simply type 
the last character you would like to 
include in the range and the highlight 
automatically jumps to the next 
occurence of that character. For 
example, if you would like to delete a 
sentence when in delete mode, just type 
a period and the highlight jumps to the 
end of the sentence. 

Among the weaknesses of the word 
processor s the fact reformatting of 
sections of text does not happen 
automatically but must be specifically 
commanded. I found the best bet if you 
were editing a largo document was to 
make all your editorial changes, then 
reformat the entire document. This car' 
be done all at onco. Although you may 
have to wait a moment while 
reformatting of the document takes 
place, it does save the frustration of 
finding you have not reformatted a 
portion after the "final" print -out has 
been run!! 



Two new 
graphs 



The Graph working environment 
basically allows access to an expanded 
version of Lotus 12 3 graphics. In 
addition to the pie chart line graph, bar 
chart, stacked bar and X-Y graphs the 
high-low-close open graph for use with 
stock market prices, and the pie chart 
with exploded wedges and colour. 

One of the Lotus 1-2-3 features which 
took a bit of getting used to was the fact 
that to produce a hard copy of a graph, it 
was necessary to save the graph to a 
special print file. You then exit 1-2-3 ana 
go to the printgraph program, specify 
details of plotter printer type, type lace 
and colours required etc, then print your 
graph. 

Unfortunately Symphony continues 
with this approach. Given the size and 
complexity of the existing program, this 
fault can be forgiven. In addition. 
Symphony does not provide for mixing 
hard copy documents or spreadsheet 
reports with graphics. This drawback is 
offset by Symphony's outstanding 
graphs produced on a wide range of 
printers and plotters. 



Subscribe 
today 



BITS & BYTFS Novemtifii 



1 984 49 



INT€GRflT€D PflCKRGCS 



•.•;•;•:•.--:•:■:■:■:•.'■•■•:•:■:•; ..•.-.-....•■; 



Database management 



One of the most interesting and useful 
features of Symphony is the database 
management piovided in the FORM 
environment. Using a simple process of 
database definition involving typing of 
labels (field names) down a row together 
with the field type and the field width. 
Symphony sets up a database, an input 
form, and a basic report format. 

The database is managed using the 
input form to odd, delete, retrieve, and 
modify individual records, allowing 
searches using "query by example". 
When you select the search mode, you 
are presented with a blank input form. 
You fill in any field with your search 
criteria, and Symphony quickly retrieves 
matching records. H is possible to output 
selected records to a specified range and 
print them out in a flexible report format. 

Matching criteria include wild card 

characters such as to specify all of a 

similar type, and "?" to indicate any 

character would be acceptable at that 

location in the search criteria. 

As with Lotus 12 3. the statistical 
functions are very good and you will 

tiave to go some distance to find a stand- 
alone database system with as extensive 
calculation capabilities. 



It must be admitted that use of the 
FORM environment can be deceiving in 
its apparent simplicity of use. Underlying 
the surface simplicity is a rathe' complex 
system that can be cause for a great deal 
of frustration if you no something wrong. 

I inadvertantly deleted part o' a report 
range for headings o' a database report 
and this was not discovered until I ran a 
copy of the report on trie printer. NJot 
only was there no heading but the format 
of the report was set to a default ol nine 
character wide fields. This made 
mincemeat ol my report, rendering it 
almost unreadable (since many of the 
fields were IB characters wide). It took 
me an hour with the manual to figure out 
what I had done wrong, and correct my 
mistake. 



Too much for 
the new user 



This brings up an interesting point 
about integrated software. A major 

impetus for these new integrated 
windowing packages is ostensibly to 
make it easier (or users to access a wider 



range ol application packages withou 
the problems of different men 
structures, command types etc. etc. Bu 
m some cases, this process o 
integration has spawned software Si 
comprehensive and flexible the complex 
ity of the program 'S more than th- 
typical new user can handle- 
It would seem to make sense t< 
release these complex programs in ; 
preeonfigured state that would not allov 
new users to make the most commoi 
mistakes, hut would rattier teach then 
new features only as they require them 
This would provide a truly interactive 
tutorial and help function, superior to the 
typical rote tutorial, and help files. 

This is. of course, a level of software 
sophistication one step beyond where 
we are now. But it seems to be t 



necessary next 
continue to 

comprehensive 
mindboggling. 
Symphony's 
provides for 
asynchronous 



step if software is tc 

become mort- 

without becoming 



COMM environment 
very comprehensive 
communications, 
accomplishing this function as well as 
most standalone packages. Data may be 
sent or receiver) automatically using the 
autodial and autoanswer functions, with 
data capable of being captured directly 
into a worksheet. 



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BITS & BYTFS November 1984 51 



INT€GRflT€D PACKAGES 



As w th all of Symphony's 
environments settings, sheets are used 
to modify the working environment to 

Speed aiir: typo o? transmission 

Interface Phone Terminal Send Broak 

Interface Terminal 

Baud: 110 Screen: 

Parity; None Echo: 

Length: 7 Linefeed: 

Stop bits' 1 Backspace: 

Phone Wrap: 

Tvpe: Pulse Delay: 

Dial: 60 Translation: 

Answer: 1 5 inone! 
Number: 



Settings sheets may lie created for each 
-particulai application, and even multiple 

settings sheets if it were necessary to 
communicate with 



suit a particular application. Elements 
which are variable are indicated in the 
mam settings sheet and menu below: 

MENU 

Handshaking Capture Login Name Quit 

Send 

Window EOL. 013 

No Delay 
No Response: 

Backspace Brea-.: 60 
Yes Handshaking 

Inbound: Yes 

Outbound: Yes 

Capture: 

Range: No 

Printer: No 
Communications Settings; C. 'INITIAL. CCF 

a number of different remote 
sites wit!) different configurations. 

Terminal emulation for many standard 
terminals are supported such as the DEC 
VT TOO. 



Switching with windows 



Sympnony uses windows to allow 
switching from one working 

environment. or section of the 
underlying worksheet, to another with 
speed and ease. The process for 
accomplishing this involves cicating a 
series of windows 'or each new 
application. For example, you might 
create. 

1. a FORM window in which to enter 
and retrieve dam from a data base; 

2. a SHEET window in which to 
capture and analyse (fata retrieved from 
the data base: 

3. a DOC window in which to prepare 
a standard letter with extracted data 
from the analysed data; 

4. ana a COMM window to send the 
letter lo a remote site for distribution. 

The size and placement of each 
window on the CR'l screen is entirely at 
the discretion of the user. Windows may 
each he full s'\70 (taking up the entire 
screen!, or smaller, allowing overlapping 
and viewing of more than one window at 
a lime. 

Individual windows are treated like 
sheets of paper on a desktop, and when 
you press the "window" key, the next 
"piece of paper" on the stack is moved 
to the top of the pile. If that window- 
happens to be fullsize. all the underlying 
windows disappear. At first, this is a bit 
disorientating, hut adjustment comes 
fairly quickly. 

You can move to a new window by 
ether cycliry through the slack until you 

Computer marathon 

Wang Computers has established 
a community foundation through 
which the company intends 
sponsoring a number of cultural and 
sports activities. 

Its first move is the underwriting of 
the Wang NZ marathon (previously 
the City of Auckland marathon) 
for the next three years. 



find the one you are looking for (like 
shuffling through a stack of paper on 
your desktop), or move straight to a 
particular window with the Window Use 
command. 

With the use of the special macro 
functions, il is possible 10 create 
programs, including specialised menus 
for the execution of desired functions. I 
suspect many such special applications 
will become available, developed by the 
diligent Symphony officiado for the less 
diligently inclined. The special 
commands within the macro language 
allow: loops: subprograms; ring the bell; 
testing of success of communication 
exchange with other computer: menu 
selection and execution; automatic 
placement of phone calls; and automatic 
execution of all regular Symphony 
commands. 

Symphony comes in a hard plastic 
case with two compartments, one for 
the disk storage container (a separate 
hinged hard plastic container capable of 
holding eight floppy discs, function key 
template, and quick reference guide), 
and the other to hold the three manuals 
which come with the package. 

The manuals include: an introduction, 
and installation guide, a how to manual, 
and a reference manual. 

Each manual is very professionally 
presented, as one would expect from 
Lotus Development Corporation, with an 
index and three colour illustrations 
liberally sprinkled throughout. The 
manuals have been developed primarily 
with the new user in mind. Generally 
good indexing makes them easy to use 
and helpful to novices as well as the 
more experienced. 

Symphony is an extremely 
comprehensive and complex integrated 
program. There is no quesion about its 
potential to deliver tremendous problem- 
solving power into the hands of users. 
The only real question is whether users 
will be diligent enough to uncover the 
potential among the complexity. 



SOFTUJfiR€ R€VI€W 

Sandy's 

best 
yet 

By Carol Miles 

Officially, it's s best buy! Sandys 
word processor has evolved over the 
years and the latest program is the 
best yet. I first used it as Version 
1.8, dated 19/6/80, then (oddly 
enough) as Version 1.7.7, dated 
11 83. Version 1.8 2e 80, dated 
9/12-83. has the latest pedigree, and 
is by far the best. 

The Education Department has 
confirmed in a recent report that this 
version is the best value for money 
of a number of tested word 
processors for the Apple lie. 

This new word'test processor fits 
the "new" Apple like a glove, using 
all of its keys. Some keys seemed to 
have no function with earlier 
software. The TAB key, the Delete 
key, underline, tilde, etc. now all 
function. 

With the introduction of the new 
Apple lie, 12VDC portable machine 
with an 80-column, 24-line liquid 
crystal display, Sandys version 1.8 
can be extended unchanged to the 
new hardware. (The lie has the same 
keyboard as the lie.) 

Those with Apple workalikes can 
stick with Version 1.7.7, and still 
have an excellent wordprocessor. 
Since Sandys is a single-load 
program, computer users with only 



Sandy Wordprocessor 

for Apple II plus 

and Apple He 

computers 

Independent!} evaluated by teachers as 
K'M value lor nionev wordprocessor. 

Only $150 

Special prices for schools 

available from 

Ceta Resources 

Box 13225 

Christchurch. 

Or contact Neil Cooper 

Phone 482-059 



52 3ITS& BYTES 



iivm-bci 1984 



SOFTWGR6 R€VI€W 



mm 






one disk drive arc not disadvantaged. 

Perhaps the first thing the 
experienced user notices is that the 
DELETE or key now works more 

like a typewriter's TAB key. The 
cursor positively zooms through 
text. SAVE and LOAD are 
delightfully quick, as is shifting from 
the start to the end of the file. 

The GRAB function, used to shift 
blocks of text, once could handle 
only one RAM page (256 bytes). 
Now it can handle two text pages 
(4096 bytes'), and has become a very 
"powerful" feature when compos- 
ing text at the keyboard. 

Stretches 
as needed 

A "Softspace", which will stretch 
as needed, is a clever new feature 
found on few other word processors. 
Deletion can now be done whole 
paragraphs at a time. 

A glossary, or "macro" facility has 
been added coo so that blocks of 
often used text such as "Dear Sir or 
Madam" can be entered with two 
keystrokes. 

Sandys could always handle 
Applesoft text and binary files easily, 
but now has some new special 
features such as a PRINT TO DISK 
which lets you prepare and store pre 
formatted files. These files can 
interface with (for example) 
Gutenberg, another word processor. 

It is unusual indeed to find any 
program which provides special 
features so that another similar 
program will be able to work with it. 
(The Gutenberg program is a much 
more expensive word processor with 
advanced formatting features.) 

Sandys is now much faster than 
before. James Donald, the author of 
SANDYS, also wrote FastDOS. a 
high-speed replacement for DOS 
3.3. His concern for speed shows, 
for he has introduced many speed-up 
techniques. The cursor is fast to 
start, and speeds up the longer you 
hold down an arrow key. Vertical 
scrolling is smoother as well as 
faster. Many embedded commands, 
which used to require two 
keystrokes, now require only one. 

The Open Apple and Closed 
Apple keys are used extensively, 
and perform many of the functions 
previously lumbered upon an 
overworked CTRL key. In some 
cases, perhaps because of my 
current unfamiliarity with this latest 
version, I find the cursor movements 
just a mite too fast. 

Turn to page 64 



Lower cost networking 



Interested in an IBM PC for halt price? 
Well if you are also interested in local 
area networks Skellcrup Microsystems 
can offei you -lie next best thing to an 
IBM PC at approximately hall the price. 

It's called a PC Terminal. a 
microcomputer that fully emulates the 
feature, speed and power of the IBM PC 

when linked to it using a local area to 
network called PCnet (which not 
surprisingly Skellerup Microsystems also 
sell). 

PCnet is a popular and relatively 
inexpensive bus structured network that 
links PCs with one another and any 
number of peripherals. Printers, 
modems, floppy and hard disks, and 
ever internal memory C3n be shared 
among the networked PCs. Adding a PC 
to PCnet involves buying a network 
interface board, plugging it into the PC. 
and turning on the power. The network is 
compatible with all I8M software a 
further convenience and money saver, 
(IBM's own local area network is 
expected to take at least another year to 
reach New Zealand). 

So why PC Terminals? The answer is 
now. instead of buying another IBM PC. 
costing around $9000 when you want to 
add another station to your network, you 
can buy a PC Terminal at $5580 140 per 
cent tax) or only $3542 for educational 
institutions. 

You still have to have at least one IBM 
PC of XT in your network but up to 1 6 PC 
Terminals can be linked to one IBM PC. 

What the price of a PC Terminal buys 
you is a network interface board (a 
$1498 vaiue that would have to be 
added to the price of an IBM PC if you 
wanted to use that PC in a PCnet 
network) and a bare bones computer 
that is PC compatible. The terminal 
consists of two pieces: a Detachable 
IBM style keyboard and a CPU with a 
12-inch monochrome monitor secured 
above on a tiltable pedestal. The CPU is a 
standard 8088 microprocessor: the unit 
also has space for Intel's high-speed 
number-crunching 8087 co processor. 
Internal memory is 64K. expandable to 
256K. and an RS 232C serial port and 
parallel printer port are built into the unit 
as well. 

In keeping with its low-cost profile, the 
PC Terminal eschews peripheral boards 
or floppy disk drives. The monitor 
interface, for example, is built into the 
motherboard. If you must have floppy 
storage, the power supply is capable of 
supporting a single half height disk drive, 
which fits neatly into the side of die 
monitor. 

Part of the PC Terminal's compatibility 
lies m us bus the connectors and 

associated wiring that allow the 
computer to accept plug in circuit boards 
designed for the IBM PC. The PC 
Terminal has four IBM PC compatible 
interface slots. One slot is used for the 
network interface card: the rest can be 
used for additional memory, a color 
graphics board, or other devices. The 




The PC Terminal 

potential for expansion is always here. 

In a network environment you nay 
never use the expansion potential ol the 
PC Terminal, since existing resources in 
the network can always be tapped. As it 
.s. the PC Terminal can be placed on a 
desk, hooked up to the network with a 
standard 70 ohm coaxial cable, and used 
immediately. 

I he PC terminal is powerful but not 
very intelligent, h (iocs have its own 
BIOS ROM (which, among other things, 
allows it to function with the network) 
and the requisite 8088 chip for 
processing; however. to be luily 
operational it must fine its brains, namely 
DOS, somewhere in the network. 

At power on. the PC Terminal reaches 
across the network and searches for a 
PC tha: has already loaded DOS into 
memoiy. The PC Terminal then copies 
the DOS from the other PC's memory. At 
this time the PC Terminal becomes a 
member of the network. 

The important point to remember s 
that there must be a PC running DOS in 
the network from which the PC Terminal 
can boot. The PC in this case acts as a 
server, providing the PC Terminal not 
only the where withal to operate but the 
resources as well While the PC Terminal 
can process data on its own, it also 
supports a remote execution mode, 
taking control of the server PC's 
processors, memory, and peripherals. 



Zidex for Zidex 

California's Zidex has been 
represented here by Zidex (NZ) Ltd 
(P.O. Box 6501. Wellington) since 
July. Previously, its products were 
represented by Challenge Com 
puters. The company is involved in a 
range of products including 
micrographics, microfiche readers 
and printers and microfilm. It also 
has a complete range of disks 
3/2 in, 5/i in and 8in. 



BPS & BYTES Novunitior 1; 



53 



B€GINN€RS 



Each article in This serins is a gentle introduction to some topic in the computing field. It is written for the beginner, so may 
appear very simple to the rest of you. If you find it too easy, and so not worth reading, congratulations you are a beginner no 
more! Each issue will deal with a different topic, of general interest. Occasionally, material may seem to repeat what has already 
appeared in Bits & Bytes but remember, new readers are coming along all the time. 



Sorting out data 



By Gordon Findlay 



What is data? How is it stored in a 
computer? How can a computer handle 
names and addresses as opposed to 
numbers 7 

Most people are (airly comfortable 
with the idea of a computer handling 
numbers. After all, that's what 
computers were invented lor. But a lot of 
the time computers seem to be dealing 
with items of information which aren't 
numbers at all. I have just received a 
letter from the tax department's 
computer. Lots of numbers on it. sure 
but there's my name, and my address. 
And there's a date "7 Feb 1985" 
not a number although it does appear to 
contain numbers 

Any sort of information is called data. 
There arc basically two types: numeric: 
data, consisting ol numbers such as 
measurements, prices, Quantities and 
amounts; and non-numeric: such as 
names, addresses, dates, part numbers, 
and so on. 

Confusion can arise with some 
"numbers" which are classified as non- 
numeric. The address "12 Main St" 
includes a number; my computer has the 
product number. "3003", on it. Rut no 
gooci could come of adding, multiplying 
or subtracting those numbers. Nor does 
it make sense to "add" part number 
12345 to part number 23456. These 
part numbers are just identifying strings 
of symbols. 

Computers are able to handle 
numbers. But how can they handle 
names' Ultimately, all (fata is encoded 
numerically. The most common such 
code, at least in the world of micros, is 
called ASCII American Standard Code 
for Information Interchange. In this code, 
A is represented as the number 65. B as 
66, and so on. Every symbol, including 
punctuation marks, upper and lower 
case letters, and even sometimes 
graphical symbols such as the hearts, 
spades and so on of a card pack, has its 
own number. There is room for 256 
different symbols to lie given a number, 
so we won't run out. 

In this system, "Gordon" is 
represented internally as "71 79 82 68 
/9 78". I'm ignoring the fact these 
numbers will be stored in binary that 
would make the discussion too complex. 
Somewhere in the computer's internal 
instructions, there will be a mechanism 
lor displaying characters on the screen, 
and this mechanism (the "character 
generator") knows that when a 65 is 
sent to it, the dots on the screen should 
be arranged in the shape of an A. 

Even though the ASCII code is 
supposedly a standard, no two machines 
use exactly the same version of the 

54 BITS S BYTFH Novisiiuei 1984 



Every one's a 
bit different 

code. For example, most machines use 
the codes from to 127 only. The 
TRS80 uses higher codes, from 128 up, 
to represent some graphic displays. 
Under some circumstances, the Apple 
uses the codes from 128 to 255, in 
others the codes from to 127. There 
are disagreements about the ordering 
within the code too which should 

come first, upper or lower case letters? 
Machines differ. 

Once the information or data is 
encoded, the computer is able to handle 
it, just as any other set of numbers. But 
of course, it must not be allowed to try to 
take the square root ol my name. 
Programming languages help by forcing 
programmers to decide whether a 
variable being manipulated is a true 
number, or a string. This is done in 
BASIC for example by putting a dollar 
sign at the end of a variable name which 
is to tie a string. In Pascal, the 
declaration will contain the wore 
STRING or CHAR. Any attempi to 
multiply strings will then result in an error 
being reported. The report usually is 
"TYPE MISMATCH ERROR" or similar. 

Strings are indicated in programs by 
using quote marks around them. 
"3003" is a string, 3003 without the 
quotes is a number, and these two are 
quite different. In machine code, where 



the programmer doesn't have the 
protection of a programming language to 
check on what fie is doing, it is all too 
easy to confuse the two and get the 
wrong answer. 

Data often has its own structure. Here 
are four pieces of data: 
"Gordon Findlay". 
"Bits and Bytes", 
"P.O. Box 827", 
"Christchurch." 

Obviously they are not unrelated. 
Taken separately, we have four items of 
information here four strings. Taken 
together, we have one piece of 
information, a name and address. 



Records, fields 
and files 



A group of items such as these form a 
record. Each record is one item. Within 
each record there are, in this case, four 
parts, called fields. Each field may be 
manipulated separately, or the whole 
record taken as one. 

Records may also be grouped 
together, into files. As an example, let's 
take a telephone directory. 

The directory is a file. Not only that, it 
is a sorted file, in that the records are in a 
particular order, designed to help find 
any individual one. 

Each record relates to one person or 
firm. The record has four fields, the 
name, the address, the exchange and the 
number: 



Bus & Bytes, 
firs: 



P.O. Box 82 7. Choh. 



second 



Si ! 



66b66. 
•I:h 



lipids 

one record. 



In more complex sets of data, fields 
may fie nested within each other. In 
some bridge tournaments, each game in 

ONE COMF1 



Cast 



West 



Nor:l 



Spades AKJ82 

Hearts 1063? each hand has a field lor eye; 

Clubs 14 which contains the details of 

Diamonds .IS 

Here, each record Iras four fields, each 
of which has four sub fields, containing 
the actual information. 

Describing such a data structure can 
be very easy or very difficult, depending 
on the programming language used. In 
many of the most sophisticated 
languages such as Pascal. C and so on, a 
deal can be handled and manipulated just 
as one item, in the sort of language used 
ordinarily. In BASIC and many other of 
the less sophisticated languages, a deal 
must be represented as an array lor list! 
of numbers, which increases the 



a round will have the same hands dealt at 
every table. We need to be able to store 
the complete details of a deal: 

ETE DEAL 

< --~ «i record 
South <— each hand 

is a field. 

I SCll. 

tin.' cards 

difficulty of writing, understanding, and 
debugging the program immensely. 



Appointment 

Dr Geoffrey Smith has been 
appointed chief technical officer for 
Computer Sciences NZ Ltd. He has 
18 years' experience in the data 
processing industry and formerly 
worked for Databank Systems Ltd 
and Philips Data Systems in the 
Netherlands. 



COMMODORE 64 



User groups: a dealer's friend 



By Steven Darnold 

When I arrived in Blenheim recently, 
one of '.he first things I did was attend a 
meeting of the Marlborough Commodore 

Users Group. I was pleased to see a good 
turnout of about 30 members. Following 
the reading of the minutes and other 
formal business, there was a very useful 
demonstration of how to maintain 
datasettes and disk drives. The VIC 20 
and C-64 users then split into two 
groups to discuss matters specific lo 
their machines. 

I was very impressed by the meet ng 
and my only regret was that such get 
togethers occur only once a month. I 
would prefer weekly meetings. 
However, it's probably wise foi the 
group to start off slowly and increase its 
activities as finances and membership 
permit. The Marlborough group has 
taken the sensible step of affiliating with 
the Christchurch group. This enables il 
to receive the Christchurch newsletter 
and share in the Christchurch public 
domain library. I recommend this course 
to the smaller Commodore user groups. 

If a town as small as Blenheim can 
support a healthy Commodore user 
group, there should be enough support in 
all New Zealand cities for such groups. 
The latest Bits & Bytes lists Commodore 
gioups in Auckland. I auranga. Hamilton. 
Hastings, Wanganui, Wellington, Lower 
Hutt. Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and 
Invereargill. This is only about half of the 
cities in New Zealand, and I'm 
astonished such places as Palrnersion 
North and Timaru do not have local 
Commodore groups. 

If you live in a city without a 
Commodore user group, I suggest you 
start one yoursell. Hire a small hall: put 
up notices at all the Commodore dealers: 



Why not start 
your own? 



put a small advertisement in the local 
newspaper and on the local radio station. 
You'll probably be surprised at the 
number of people who show tip. A lot ol 
Commodore computers have been sold 
in the last year, and many owners are 
desperate for assistance. Few dealers 
have the time or knowledge to help their 
customers overcome their difficulties. 
User groups have a very important role to 
play in helping novices come to grips 
with their computers. Every city ol 
20,000 or more people neeos a 
Commodore user group. 

Unfortunately, many dealers dislike 
user groups. They complain that the 
groups pirate commercial programs and 
pass mem around the members, ruining 
the market for the dealers. This is 
incorrect on two counts. 

First, to my knowledge, no user group 
in New Zealand permits the copying o* 



commercial sohware at meetings. User 
groups often have large libraries of public 
domain programs which are available 

to members, but they are careful to keep 
commercial programs out of the libraries. 

Second, the market for commercial 
programs is so limited that few dealers 

will make much money out ol this side of 
their business. The main problem is that 
commercial software is so ludicrously 
expensive in New Zealand that most 
Commodore users will buy only a handful 
of programs. No dealer is going to get 
rich selling programs. 



It pays to 
encourage 



Competition 



The prize for this month's competition 
is a tape of Dicky's Diamonds (donated 
by Alpine Computing). The winner will 
be randomly selected from among the 
correct entries - only one entry per 
person. 

Your task this month is to write a 
program which inputs the user's date of 
birth and then tells him his or her age and 
star sign. 

Send a listing of your program with 
your name and address to: Dicky's 
Contest, P.O. Box 546. Blenheim. 
Entries close on November 25. 




The best way for dealers to make 
money is to encourage their customers 
to get deeper and deeper into computing. 
A keen computer user will soon be 
looking to buy a disk drive, printer, 
modem or other piece of hardware. 
Moreover, he or she will spend hundreds 
of dollars each year on magazines, blank 
disks and printer paper. A wise dealer 
will do everything he can to help 
customers use their computers. Every 
novice has problems and a little 
assistance can keep the computer from 
ending up gathering dust in the closet. 

An important way for dealers to help 
customers is by encouraging the 
development of a local user group. The 
group will help beginners get started and 
allow them to share their experience and 
understanding. I urge dealers to look en 
user gioups as allies, not enemies. 



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COMMODORE 64 



Requiem for the VIC-20 



By Steven Darnold 

The VIC 20 has boon withdrawn in 
Britain and its replacement, the C-16. 
looks like being a big success it' the pre 

Christmas market. Although the C 1 6 is 
selling lor exactly i tie same price as the 
VIC, it is n vast improvement in every 
way. 

!t has 1 6K of RAM, instead of the 
VIC's 5K. It has 40 columns instead of 
the VIC's 22. It has a lovely expanded 
BASIC and machine language monitor 
instead of the VIC's ancient PET BASIC. 

In addition. Commodore has made an 
effort to get ali the little things tight on 
the C 16. The TV modulator is built into 
the computer: it is not a clunky external 
box as on the VIC. There is a built in 
reset button and a special HELP key. All 
the function keys are pre programmed 
and are very easy to alter. Commodore 
has answered nearly every criticism 
levelled at the VIC. The C 1 6 looks set to 
become the king of the cheap 
computers. 

At the other end of the range. 
Commodore is poised to produce a 
68000 computer to compete with the 



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Apple Macintosh and the Sinclair QL. 
The new computer will be based on the 
Amiga, a computer which independent 
analysts say is better than the 
Macintosh. The Commodore Amiga is 
expected to sell for half the price of the 
Macintosh, and is bound to cause 
problems for both Apple and IBM. 

It's good to see Commodore taking the 
initiative again after seemingly drifting 
for the lasi few years. I he VIC-20 was 
long overdue for replacement, and the 
old Commodore business computers 
were simply no longer competitive. 
Except for the C-64, Commodore was 



selling yesterday's computers. Now with 
the C-16 and the Amiga, Commodore is 
making a strong bid for overall market 
leadership. 

However, C-64 owners have nothing 
lo fear. The C 64 has just entered its 
golden age and lias plenty of life left. 
This is guaranteed by the mountain of 
software now available for it. 

In addition, its sound and graphics 
capabilities are still superior to any other 
home computer, including the C 1 6. This 
combination of software support and 
technical superiority will keep the C-64 
alive for many years to come. 



That vital pit stop 



By Steven Darnold 

Car race games are popular on 
microcomputers. Most brands have at 
least one such game available; the C 64 
has several. In recent issues of Bits & 
8ytes. I have reviewed Motor Mania and 
Pole Position. This month, I'm taking a 
look at Pit Stop. 

Initially Pit Stop is a bit of a 
disappointment. The racetrack graphics 
and sound are pretty ordinary and 
compare unfavourably with the high 
standard set by Pole Position. Eveo 
Motor Mania has a more interesting 
racetrack. 

But Pit Stop is more than just a 
racetrack game. It introduces a whole 
new dimension by focussing on the 
pitstop. You don't just drive the car 
round and round the track; you also have 
to change the lyres and top up the petrol 
tank. 

The pit stop part of the game is very 
nicely done. As your car leaves the 
racetrack, the perspective changes to a 
close up view o' the pit. Your car is 
surrounded by four men whom you 
manoeuvre around the car by using the 
joystick. If you are running short of fuel, 
you manoeuvre the man holding the 
petrol hose so that the nonle goes into 



the car's tank. If one of your tyres is 
dangerously worn, you manoeuvre one 
of the men to remove it and replace it. 
You'll have to hurry, though, because 
every second counts. 

The pit stop makes the game quite 
interesting. 'Since you are striving to 
finish the race in the least possible time, 
you can't afford to make pit stops too 
often. Even when you've got a badly 
worn tyre on a neatly empty petrol tank, 
there's a big incentive to squeeze in an 
extra lap before stopping. If you are too 
careful, you will get a low score. If you 
are too optimistic, you will run out of 
petrol or blow a tyre. This dilemma adds 
spice to the game. 

Overall. Pit Stop is an interesting game 
which requires more thinking than either 
Pole Position or Motor Mania. 
Nevertheless, the superior graphics and 
sound of Pole Position- maintains its 
number one position among car race 
games. 




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Phone (09) 658-416 



56 



COMPUTER 

GAMES 

FOR HIRE 

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for the following computers' 

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BUS P. D V TES Novcirlim 198<1 



COMMODOR6 



More selective input routines 



By Tony Graham 

Last month, wo looked at how to 

create an input routine which would 
accept only numeric input. This month, 
we will expand the use of the ASC 
function to create other useful input 
routines by re-defining keys and later, 
the use of the ON GOtO statement. 

Type in and RUN our test program. 
10 GET XS:IF XS = " " THEN 10 
20 PRINT ASCiX$l:GOT0 10 

Press the A key; your computer will 
return a value 65. Now press SHIFT and 
A; the answer will be 1 93. Try the same 
test with a few other keys. It becomes 
clear that the SHIFT key increases the 
answer by 128. This leads to interesting 
possibilities as it means we can include a 
line in an input routine which will change 
SHIFTed characters to unSHIFTed or 
vice versa. 

Here is a line that, when added to our 
test program, will change SHIFTed 
characters to their unSHIFTed counter- 
part. 

15 IF ASCiX$:>127 THEM 
X$-CHR$:ASCiX$i-1?8: 

In this line, the ASC value of X$ is 
checked to see if the value is more than 
127. If it is greater, 128 is subtracted 
from the ASC value obtained and X$ is 
revalued by the use of the CHR$ 
function. 

We can change unSHIFTed characters 
to their shifted counterpart by re writing 
the line to read: 
15 IF ASCiXSi<128 THEN 
X$=CHRSiASCiX$i-128; 

While many other changes are 
possible, we must be sure our program 
never attempts an ASC or CHR$ value 
outside the range of to 255 or we will 
crash with an illegal quantity error. 

Note that the CHR$ is the converse of 
the ASC function. 

We will now move on to the VIC and 
C64 function keys which, for some 
reason, seem to mystify budding 
programmers as their sole purpose is to 
provide extra keys. While there are 
several ways to read these keys, we will 
keep to the ASC<X$! method. 

If we RUN our test program, wc will 
find the F1 key returns a value of 1 33. F2 
is 1 34, and so on up to F8 which is 1 40. 
Because these keys return consecutive 
numbers, they are ideal lor use with the 
ON GOTO statement, as with only a few 
lines we can decode all function keys. 

Try this routine to read only the 
function keys and provide eight options 
for ttie program path: 
10GE1XS:IF XS-' - • THfcN 10 
20 A = ASClXS: 

30 IF- A<133 or A>140 THIN 10 
■•10 ON A 132 GOTO 100. 200. 300, 400. 
500. 600. 700. 800 

Line 10 is the familiar loop waiting for 
a key to be pressed. Line 20 gives the 
variable A the ASC value of X$. Line 30 
checks to see if it was one of the 



function keys. Line 40 uses the ON- 

GOTO statement to select the desired 
program path. By subtracting 132 from 
the value returned by a function key, we 
are left with a value between 1 and 8 
which selects the line we GOTO. 

Lines 100. 200. 300 etc. or your own 
alternatives, must exist or your program 
will crash. 

If we wish to read only five or six 
funciion keys, it is a simple matter to 
alter our trap in line 30 to reject the 
unwanted keys and reduce the GOTO 
options in 40. 

This is probably an opportune time to 
mention alternative methods of selecting 
input. 

On both the VIC and C64, a check for 
which key is pressed can be made by 
PEEKM 97i. If no key is pressed when the 
PEFK is made, the PEEK will be 64. 

The value returned by each key can be 
found by using this program: 
10 A=PEEK(197):IF A^64 THEN 10 
20 PRINT A.CHR$!A) 
30 GOTO 10 

Note that the values returned by the 
PEEK are not standard ASCII or CHRS 
codes. 

I prefer not to use this type of 



Missing links 

We dropped a couple of symbols off 
the routine at the end of Tony Graham's 
article on "Selective Input Routines" last 
month. Here is the correct version. 

,.., .' ;••:", i li" 'iHiii'.i 
;0 n -i-i-.i ■ • i ... i :'. i>:-t- 1 Ov 

:_'■ | : ,i -.,. . » . , i HHrl -' " 

-■o (i ,--.i • v:i . ..i 'um -i. ' :• ■ ,: ' nil.. mo 

.jij, j.,.-.i ...I a li i i ■'■!-! •••' • :i s'I.'IHUIJh 

».-■ 'i,vs.. i :..<•>!• -:.i 

-..' t.t -i-.il • i ! ; II-. nil HI' 'I :l 

; - o -'t a i. ■■ 1 1 ■• >'i .'-. ■ 

..,,-. I,,- J |,l • I 1 

■•.■1.1 i iV] tu :i ' "l" :t«ul ' ' I l ' 

i -i, . t. -, ill ' Yi ii.lt' * 1 1 11-11 1 ili'i -. ' ■'* 

We also missed a greater than and less 
than, in the paragraph beginning: "Well 
it works, but we still can't use a decimal 
point . . . 

Here is the corect paragraph: 



Well it works, but we still can't use a 
decimal point. That's ASCII 46. We 
could add AND ASCiX$l<>46 to line 
30 if it will fit. If wc re-think the problem, 
what we really want is all characters 
from ASCII 43 through to 57 with the 
exception of 44 the comma and 4 7 the 
slash. Let's write it that way. 
30 IF ASCtXSK 48 OR ASCIXSI757 
THEN10 

40 IF ASC!X$i=44 OR ASCiX$i-47 
THEN10 



keyboard decoding as it is not 
compatible with other Commodore 
models. The PET uses PEEKI151) with 
versions 2 & 4 BASIC but there are 
variations in the values returned. If 
however, we do use this system we can 
still use the IF THEN statement to accept 
or reject a single key or group of keys by 
checking the value of the PEEK. 

The CHRS function is another useful 
method we can use to select a given key. 
This can be used in a similar way to the 
ASC function. 

Here is a routine which responds only 
to the RETURN key: 

10 GET XS IF X$-CHRS:13; 1HFN 9C 
20 GO 10 10 
90 END 

We can use the CHRS function to 
detect other unprintable characters such 
as delete, cursor left or right, or cursor 
home. The purpose for which we use this 
or any function may well be determined 
by how wc wish to use the information 
entered via the keyboard. 

There is no right or wrong way to 
select input. Some input routines ore 
definitely tidier than others. So if your 
routine works, con be easily followed 
and is economical in terms of memory 
usage, it's OK. 



New Macro Assembler 

A new version of the Macro 
Assembler computer language 
development system for 8 and 1 6-bit 
microcomputers has been released 
here. 

The new 1.27 version, from 
Microsoft, offers fast and powerful 
facilities usually found in higher-level 
languages, increasing programming 
efficiency and relocatable object 
code. It has the ability to recognise 
memory greater than 51 2K. 



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BITS K U V TCS Novamiwr 1984 57 



VIC 









Read all about them . . . the magazines 



By Peter Archer 



There are several types of computer 
magazine. These include those aimed at 
husiness users and those slanted more 
towards the hobbyist. Those for the 
hobhyist break down into two main 
divisions: those which specialise in one 
ot several machines only (or in specific 
aspects of computing), and those that 
try to "cover the field". 

Obviously, if a computer magazine 
tries to capture as wide a readership as 
possible by covering all types of 
machine, it con give only (relatively) thin 
coverage to each aspect of computing. 
Most of the English and Australian 
computer magazines on sale in Mew 



Zealand suffci from this "covei all 
bases" policy. 

A couple of years ago when there was 
a sudden appearance of many computer 
magazines on our bookshop shelves. I 
used to buy most of these imported 
magzincs. But now I am very 
discriminating: there are many 
magazines I never even bother to glance 
through any more as I know they will not 
contain anything of interest to me. 

I .honestly believe the best value for 
money "general" computer magazine is 
our own Bits & 8ytes. It gives good 
coverage to Commodore machines iat 
least live or six pages), is relatively 




THE EVENT 

Not just another show. An event. 
The New Zealand Personal Computer Exhibition. 
The New Zealand Microcomputer Software Awards. 
New Zealand's First Annual Microcomputer Dinner. 
Industry related lectures and seminars. 



An Exhibitors night out. 

■■■■■■■■ ---.-■ ■■>:•■ '■■■ • :..-:■ ■• ■.:.■!• fin ■ . I. ,• .: .,.„ 

•jfii. «y««Hi 

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cheap, and its general features and 
articles ate mainly of a high standard. 

For several years now, the best 
American computer magazine has been 
COMPUTE! It started in the early days of 
microcomputing and has specialised in 
computers using the 6502 processor 
family, especially Commodore and Atari. 
The famous Jim Butter field, of Toronto, 
has been a regular contributor and the 
Commodore content has always been of 
an excellent standard. 

As the VIC-20 and then the 
Commodoie-64 became popular, 
COMPUTE' went from strength to 
strength. 1 983 was a real vintage year 
as circulation climbed from just ovei 
100,000 to 400,000. Quality also kept 
climbing the December '83 issue had 
almost 400 pages of top grade features 
(even the advertisements were 
interesting with new products appearing 
monthly). 

The magazine moved into larger 
premises tor the fifth time in five years, 
and at the end of 1 983, appeared poised 
to pass Byte as the largest selling 
computer magazine in the world. 



A hard act 
to follow 



But 1983 proved a hard act to follow. 
Higher circulation means higher 
advertising rates, and as the (already 
high or by our standards) rates soared, 
advertisers dropped out. The June '84 
issue had only 1 60 pages, but still of a 
very high quality and still very good 
value. 

The other reason for the shrinkage ol 
COMPUTE! was its launching of a new 
Commodore only magazine. 

'COMPUTES Gazette this first 

appeared in July '83 and covers the 
VIC-20 and Commodore 64 only. The 
standard is extremely high, and it is 
streets ahead of all its opposition. Many 
of the Commodore advertisers have 
switched from COMPUTE to the 
Gazette, and circulation is now near 
400.000. 

I recommend "Compute's Gazette" as 
the first magazine you should buy each 
month followed by COMPUTE! It is 
interesting to note that the publishers of 
COMPUTE! tried to jump on the IBM 
tiandwaggon and introduced another 
magazine specialising in the IBM PC and 
PC Jr. This has recently tolded. mainly 
because of the dismal sales of the PC Jr. 

During the past year or so many new 
specialist Commodore only magazines 
have been launched in North America 
and Europe. Some of these are available 
in New Zealand but none I have seen 
come up to the standard of Compute's 
Gazette. The nearest would be the 
English publication. Commodore User, 
which first appeared in the early VIC 
days under the title, VIC Computing, 
initially as a two-monthly. 



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Commodorc User usually contains 
some good meaty articles for the more 
advanced Commodore user. There are 
always plenty of software reviews, some 
of which are hard hitting. I always 
suspect the good intentions of a 
publication which prints only favourable 
reviews; it makes me wonder is this for 
real or are they just avoiding upsetting 
their advertisers by not rubbishing any of 
their products 7 So be suspicious of 
magazines which publish only favourable 
reviews! 

The next best US Commodoie 
magazine I have seen would be 
Commander which is very heavy on 
reviews with an adequate amount ol 
programs, etc. I obtained several issues 
direct from the USA, but have not seen it 
here yet. If anyone knows of it being 
available here. I would like to know. 

Another reasonable quality US 



publication is Run which has been on 
sale in New Zealand lor some months 
now. While not anywhere as good as 
Compute's Gupette. it is still reasonable 
value and I get the impression the 
publishers are really trying hard. 

Closer to home, there is a magazine 
distributed to Commodore dealers by the 
New Zealand Commodore distributors. 
Commodore Magazine has been 
produced by tor lor'; Commodore 
Australia, but has not been popular in 
New Zealand because of its poor quality 
and excessive price. 

I heard from one of my Australian user 
group contacts that it was to tie 
revamped under new editorship, and the 
other day I received a copy of the first 
effort direct from the new publisher. I am 
quite impressed. The format is much the 
same, but the quality of the content is 
much improver!. 



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There are many books aimed at the 
VIC user, but the quality (and price! 
varies greatly. 

Commodore INZl distributes about a 
dozen VIC titles to its dealers, and there 
are many others available from 
bookstores. Two of the oldest titles 
however, remain very good value. 

Commodore's own Programmers 
Reference Guide is an essential addition 
to any serious VIC user's library. It is a 
straight reference work, not a tutorial, 
but contains a wealth of information. At 
$32. it is not cheap, but to gam the 
equivalent information from alternative 
sources would mean buying several 
separate titles. 

If you are a beginner wanting to learn 
all about programming your VIC in 
BASIC, you still cannot do better than 
Commodore's Introduction to BASIC, 
Part 1. Along with part 2 which covers 
the more advanced aspects of BASIC, 
this has been around since the very early 
days of the VIC. But it is still the 
definitive tutorial on BASIC for VIC 
users. At a list price of S43.50, it is 
rather expensive, but for this you get 
1 50 large '.A4 size* pages presented in 
an attractive sensible format with lay-flat 
type spiral binding. 

There arc plenty of easy to-follow, 
worked examples, with liberal use of 
flow charts. Two cassette tapes, 
containing 1 7 programs to load into your 
VIC. are also included. These include 
both demo programs and quizzes on the 
subject matter covered in many of the 
chapters. Introduction to BASIC, written 
by a professor at a Scottish university. 
has sold well over 100,000 copies 
throughout the world. 

Many of the numerous computer 
books now on the shelves of local 
bookshops show signs of having been 
hastily produced with the main object of 
both the author and publisher being to 
cash in on this computing craze. 
Especially prone to this are books written 
by an author who produces titles for 
many different brands of machine. These 
often show signs ol a "jack of all trades, 
master of none", with much of the 



content superficial and most 
programming examples written in 
"standard BASIC", and only slight 
coverage of each particular machine's 
specialised character. 



Stands up to 
inspection 

At first glance. I was afraid that Get 
More From the VlC-20. by Owen Bishop, 
published by Granada, fell into this 
category. Gianada produces a whole lot 
of computer books in the same type of 
cover style and binding, etc. 

But on close inspection, I found that 
Mr Bishop has done a good job. He has 
obviously taken the time to really come 
to grips with the VIC. Some of his 
examples are really well presented. I 
especially like the diagrams which 
explain the poking of screen characters 
and colours: this would be the best 
explanation of this that I have seen. 
Priced at $ 1 9.9f>. this one is good value. 

Among the best value VIC books are 
those produced by the publishers of 
COMPUTE! and Compute's Gazette 
magazines. They are all in lay-flat type 
spiral binding which other publishers 
could do well to copy. 

The content quality is always first rate 
and the authors are really expert. In 
some of the books, they take the very 
best from past issues of the magazine 
and re-present it in one volume, along 
with some fresh material. In others, they 
present mainly fresh material. 

If you missed the earlier issues of 
COMPUTE! anii Compute's Gazette 
magazines, it would be well worth 
looking at the set of books. COMUTE's 
First Book of VIC. COMPUTE'S Second 
Book of WCand COMPUTE'S Third Book 
of VIC. These are a real gold-mine of 
useful information, with plenty of useful 
program listings for those who enjoy 
typing in programs. Topics covered in 
considerable depth include graphics. 
games, utilities, machine language, 
sound, and the VIC memory map. 



ATARI 



BC's seven-screen test 



By Michael Fletcher 

Three morwhs ago. I sent away for a 
program aboul which I had heard so 
much I just had to get it. "BC's Quest for 
Tires" eventually arrived in my postbox 
neatly wrapper! in a plain brown 
Huntington's computing envelope. 
Hurriedly. I rushed in, turned on the 
computer and the disk drive, and in 
about 30 seconds, the words, "BC's 
Quest lor Tires" flashed on the screen. 
Soon the action started and I must say I 
have never been so impressed be f ore by 
a home computer game. 

The graphics are, to say the least, truly 
incredible. On screen, you arc portrayed 
as the lovable comic character, BC. and 
it is your task, as the hemic character, to 
rescue the beautiful cave lady. Tires, 
from her kidnapper, the Cave Hag. 
Sound complicated? Believe me it is. 

The scene is set in the Cromagnon era 
and BC is a primitive caveman. Ii is your 
job, with the aid of a spinning rock wheel 
which BC uses to move around, to find 
Tires and her pel. the evil cave 
Brontosaurous. 

The action is totally original. In the first 
stage, for example. >t involves you, as 
BC, to jump and duck while moving on 
your rock wheel, logs, tree branches, 
rocks, ditches and numerous other 



objects. This may ail sound old hat but 
not when you see this game in action on 
screen. Mow many of you have heard of 
a hairy caveman with moose li[»s. 
balancing on a wheel turning a! 10 mph, 
while ducking under a mangrove branch? 

The game shows oil the Atari's 
graphics and colour capabilities, it is 
available only on disk and is 48K. 
Though not available in Mew Zealand 
retail shops, it can be obtained Irom large 
mail order computet software firms in 
the USA. 

Apart from she difficulty in yetting hold 
of it, BC is a very exciting and a 
graphically remarkable program. 

One o' its big plus points is its 
essentially non violent aspect. This 
makes trie game ideally suited for very 
young children and the 100 per cent 
machine code action means t is also 
playable for oloei Atari owners. 

The game is divided into seven action 
screens Each is different and most are 
graphically excellent. 



Screen 1 



The action starts furiously. As on all 
screens, the joystick is used to move 
forwards, backwards, or jumping and 



ducking obstacles, In this introductory 
screen, the object is to roll along on your 
wheel trying to avoid many different 
dangerous objects. including low 
branches, pot holes and rolling stones. 
The screen ends when you come to a 
screaming halt at a lake. 



Screen 2 



Perhaps the most humorous screen of 
the game, it involves you, as BC, a lake 
with bobbing turtles, and the evil cave 
hag swinging a club up and down while 
chanting "jump, sucker". 

The object s to jump from turtle to 
turtle to the other side ol the screen, 
without the cave hag hitting you on the 
head. This is extremely hard to achieve 
and it took me a good 30 tries to get past 
the cave hag's swinging club. 

When you are knocked off a turtle, you 
fall into the lake, a nasty smirk embraces 
your face and you slowly disappear to 
the bottom of the lake. On screen, this is 
very funny. Once mastered, this screen 
is relatively easy to complete. 



Screen 3 



This is almost the same as screen one. 



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but this time vou are travelling uphill and 
you must jump to avoid boulders rolling 
down the hill. A good tip is to always 
jump at an angle, This way, you can 
avoid two objects at once. Tin: screen 
ends when you reach the top of the 
summit. 

Screen 4 

This involves jumping over boulders 
and ditches. From about halfway 
through, a funny looking bird flies along 
the top of the screen. Very soon, you 
approach a huge pit. If you manage the 
right jumping action, you can cross the 
pit by grabbing the bird's legs. The bird 
will fly you safely across the tar-filled p t. 
then drop yon while giving a huge smile. 



Commodore's record year 

Commodore International has had 
another record year, with sales 
topping $1.25 billion. 

Commodore's Australian manag- 
ing director, Nigel Shepherd, said the 
performance during 1983 84 almost 
doubled the turnover for the previous 
financial year of $681 million. 




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However, if you don't jump the pit. 
BC's legs will be helplessly stretched 
down into the tar and his irnhappy face 
will soon follow. This screen ends just 
alter completion of Hie jump. 

Screen 5 

After stage four. RC starts rolling 
down the hill, again having to avoid 
ditches and rocks. This screen gets really 
difficult at the end when BC has to jump 
over a tar pit to get to the next level. To 
do this, BC must push (he action button 
and move the joystick to the right. This 
increases BC's speed ant) allows him to 
jump the pit safely. 

A'ter completing the tar pit. rocks 
star: falling out of the sky and you have 
to maneouvrc BC to avoid them. This is 
very difficult as you are still travelling at 
the speed you used to jump the ramp. 
The best thing to do is push the action 
button and move the joystick to youi le f t 
(this slows you down; and hope for the 
best. The screen ends when you come to 
another row of bobbing turtles. 

Screen 6 

This is almost identical to screen two 

(bobbing tur:ies; except the cave hag is 
exchanged with her pet brontosaurus 
which keeps sticking its head in and out 
ol its cave. The turtles also dive a lot 
faster, making it harder to jump from 
turtle to turtle Once this task is 
completed. BC finds himself in the 
brontosaurus' lair and up against two 
forms of obstacle, stalagmites and 
stalagtites. which BC must jump and 
duck. 

Though one of the longest screens in 
the game, this is fairly easy to complete. 
It ends when you reach the place where 



Tires is being held captive. 



Screen 7 

In the final screen, you as the player 
control nothing on screen. Instead, 
everything is controlled by the computer. 
The screen involves you, as BC, and the 
lovely cavewoman. Tires. This is all I'm 
going to tell you as I don't want to ruin 
the surprise. But the interaction is well 
worth seeing. 

Good news 
on games 

By Michael Fletcher 

One of the moie exciting pieces of 

news about the new soltware boom for 
Atari products is that Monaco Industries 
seems to be importing Activison 
software as well as Atari material for 
both Atari systems (2600 and Atari 
computcrsi. 

The name. Activison. should be 
familial to any Atari owner who has 
picked up an American computer 
magazine recently. Activison made its 
name in the software field two years ago 
as the first independent computer 
company to make a cartridge for the 
Atari 2G00 IV game. Its success in this 
field induced the company to produce 
titles for the Atari lange of computers. 

This is good news for New Zealand 
Atari owners as Activison has well over 
3b original games for the Atari VCS, 
which it plans to convert to Atari 
computers. These titles range horn the 
award-winning Pitfall to the brilliant 
audio on Kaboom which will be reviewed 
in Sits & Bytes next month. 



Using BASIC: a tutorial 



By Ron McMullen 

It usually pays to begin a program with 
a GRAPHICS command. Use GRAPHICS 
where you have a lot of text to display 
and multiple colours are not needed. Use 
GRAPHICS 1 or GRAPHICS 2 il you do 
not have a lot of text to display. The 
increased size and number of colours 
make text more readable and attractive. 

GRAPHICS 3 to 7 are multicolour 
mapping modes, useful lor pictures, bar 
charts 'etc. GRAPHICS 8 is a single 
Colour mode for plotting graphs and hi- 
res pictures. 

Note that GRAPHICS provides a 
major advantage over modes 1 and 2 for 
INPUTing data Irom the keyboard. In 
mode 0, die screen and keyboard are lied 
together to form the so called "editor 
device". 
Example: 

10 GRAPHICS 0: REM Setup mode arid 
cleai screen 

20 PRINT "HOW MANY PCOPLE".:RF-M 
prinl the nromp! 

30 INPUT PPL:R<-M Phni a "'" and wail lor 
n number ro be typed on iho keyboard. 



40REM as vou type "he -lumber it is printed 
on the screen. The backspace key can be 
used to erase mistakes. 
f>0 REM continue the program once RETUR\ 
is pressed. 

This screen/keyboard interaction is not 
available in modes 1 and 2. Quite a 
different programming technique is 
needed to achieve the same thing. 

Want some simple code which 
increases a number if the joystick is up 
and decreases if the stick is down? Tiy 
this: 

10 X = X-iSTICK;0i-14!-.;STICK:0"=I3: 

(STICKlO) = 14> is true land therefore 
equals 1 ) if the stick is up and false (0) if 
the stick is down. 

Ever wanted a number to wrap around 
from 255 to when you add 1 . or from 
to 255 when you subtract 1? Here's a 
simple way to do it: 
10 X = ASCiCHR$(X + 256l) 

Put this line after the addition 
subtraction and it does the wraparound 
for vou. 



BBC 



Graphics extravaganza 



By Pip Forer 



This month we look briefly at three. 
newly releasee; graphics accessories to 
the BBC. Two of '.hem are relatively 
expensive (about s 1200s. one is a Now 
Zealand initiative and one is a cheap 
boon 10 all Acorn users wanting to 
dabble with LOGO. 

Price of place should 90 to CAVII. a 
product developed by Barson Computers 
in collaboration with Christchurch 
Polytechnic. CAVII, an interlace which 
controls an industrial standard video tape- 
recorder :VTRi. is designed 10 allow a 
teacher 01 training school to set up 
teaching modules composed oi 
sequences oi texl and questions 
interspersed with video imagery. 

In many cases, teaching a topic 
requires a visual demonstration of 
something, whether fitting a plug in 
electroivcs or the architecture of a 
Khmer temple in a geography unit on 
Man arid landscape. Often it is useful :o 
ask questions on material presented in 
this way. 

CAVII controls a VTR so that clearly 
defined sequences of film can be 
presented to the user. I: also uses 
software which is able 10 provide the 
student with multiple choice or open 
response questions.' The response to the 
questions controls the video that is 
presented. A student who knows the 
topic may simply progress through a 
series of questions and short video 
sequences. Someone having trouble 
with the ideas may be routed by the 
program to look at a remedial film and he 
asked different and more basic 
questions. 

BBC joins a 
select bunch 

In having such an interface, the BBC 
joins a fairly select bunch of machines 
offering this facility for individualised 
learning. Although a complex product, it 
is simplicity itself 10 the student user. 

Equally impressive is its extreme ease 
of use 'or the person producing the 



teaching or training sequences. Once the 
required video is available and the 
learning sequence designed, it offers 

high productivity in producing material 
The user creating a lesson lias available 
an editor which allows them to define 
film "scenes" in terms of position on the 
tape. Having done that, the user creates 
a session by do'ining a sequence, text 
pages, questions and branches. 

The last ol these allows different 
responses by the user to trigger different 
learning paths. You can even bring in a 
BASIC program halfway through a 
session and then resume the video based 
exercise, Just to top it off. student 
records and progress are automatically 
documented on disk. 

The product looks robust and its only 
current drawback speed of videotape 
searching is not of its own making. 
Even so, this is not a crucial diawhack 
lor most uses and as a starter on the 
route to similar video-disk bascc: 
technology, it is a worthy beginning. 

Next up is the BBC version of the 
Robocom Bitstik. originally produced as 
a CAD (computet assisted design; 
workstation for the Apple II. This is 
getting back 10 standard computer 
graphics from the world ol video. The 
Bitstik is a sophisticated joystick with 
three special buttons and a rotating 
joystick providing a third channel of 
adjustable control. 

It works via a ROM anil software to 
allow the user to cieate complex designs 
using commands from the screen menu. 
These allow considerable flexiblity in 
choosing colour, particular shape 
drawing options, zooming (magnifying), 
panning (moving across a larger image 
than the screen- and lettering. The most 
important option is that any drawing 
created on ttie screen can be saved to a 
library of drawings. New and more 
complex drawings can then lie produced 
by combining these library pictures at 
any new scale or rotation. It should be 
noted though, that drawings are strictly 
two dimensional. 



As a simple CAD device, it draws 
gasps of admiration and has enormous 
potential as a low-cost two dimensional 
CAD terminal. It is easy to learn, suitably 
fast and a pleasure to use. 

However, right now it also has some 
flaws. It is quite demanding on the purse 
and equipment since it is configured for a 
twin disk drive, second processor 
machine. It also requires a ROM slot. 
Whether the ROM is set up to save 
memory in the second processor or just 
as a hardware "donglc" is hard to tell. 
but it reduces portability a lot. 

The need for two disks is unnecessary 
and seems to have been built around the 
assumption that two-sided drives would 
be rare. In particular, communications 
witli the outside world are a bit limited. 
At piresent, it lacks a digitiser interface 
(lor capturing printed material), a plotter 
driver and any range of printer dump 
routines. The plotter omission is the 
most severe and is I gather, being 
rectified. Watch for this product to 
mature fully. It has been heavily 
promoted in Britain and has considerable 
potential. 

'Turtlegraphics' 
package 

Lastly, Acornsoft's "turtlegraphics" 
package which I managed to sight at a 
high school. This is the first entirely 
satisiactory version oi turtle graphics I 
have seen on the BBC Electron range and 
it has been worth the wait. 

Essentially, the package allows the 
user io work in the LOGO graphics 
environment pioneered in Papert. It does 
not embrace the structure and list 
handling of LOGO but it does allow the 
creation of new. named procedures 
exactly in the manner of classic LOGO. In 
fact, the statement syntax is identical to 
LOGO and it has presumably been 
designed to allow easy user-progression 
on to a full LOGO where desired. 
Turn to page 70 



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Moving sprites: P a rt 2 



by Barbara Bridger 

Many game programs require virtually 
continuous player input. For one-player 
games, it is usual to accept input fiom 
the inbuilt joystick for movement, with 
the space bar used as a firing button, if 
necessary. 

However, if a lot of shooting games 
are being played on your machine it is 
worthwhile investing in an external 
joystick to avoid weakening the space 
bar return spring (SV318). Two player 
games can use the two joystick ports or 
the keyboard for one player, and the 
inbuilt joystick or cursor keys ifoi the 
SV328! lor the other. 

When programming these games, it is 
necessary to use the STRIG and SUCK 
and probably the ON SPRITE function. 
The STICK command assigns a value to a 
variable depending on which direction 
the joystick is being pushed. This value is 
then used to determine the direction in 
which the sprite is to be moved. It takes 
the form X = STICKin) where X is the 
variable and n is the joystick number (0 = 
keyboard joystick, 1 =joystick port 1,2 = 
joystick port 2). If X = 1, then upward 
motion results; if X = 3, 5 or 7, 
movement is right, down or left 
respectively. Hie missing even numbers 
give the diagonal directions, in clockwise 
order. 

Accepting firing input is accomplished 
using the STRIG commands There are 
two options; both use the STRIGlniON 
statement to look for input from the 
keyboard trigger (space ban ot joystick 
trigger. Note there must be no spaces in 
the STRlGiniON command to avoid a 
syntax enor. Then you can use the 
statement OK' STRIG' GOSUB X.Y.Z to 
transfer program execution to a 
subroutine beginning at line X.Y, or Z 
when trigger button 0.1. 0' 2 lias been 
depressed (Space bar. port 1 



An alternative 
statement 



button or port 

respectively;. 



filing tuition. 



Alternatively, the statement X - 

STRIG'.n) can be used. When the 

appropriate trigger has been pressed. X 

1. and you car then use the 

slatemem 

IF X - - I THEK GOSUB y 
to transfer program execution to a 
suitable subroutine 

The essential difference between 
these alternatives is That the lust may 
transfer control to a subroutine from any 
point in the program, whereas the 
second transfers control from a specific 
point in the program. 

STRIGinlOFF stops the recording o' 
trigger input and STRIG(n)STOP means 
that the depression of a trigger will be 
recorded but no action will be taker until 
STRlGiniON is encountered. 

The ON SPRITF function is relatively 
straight-forward The statement, SPRITE 
ON. enables sprite collisions to be 
detected and the statement 
ON SPR-TE GOSUB Y 

dnects the program sequence to a 
suitable subroutine when two sprues 
collide. SPRITE STOP records sprite 
collision without action being taken until 
SPRITE ON is encountered again, and 
SPRITE OFF stops the recording of sprite 
collisions. 

Some care needs to be taken with the 
positioning of these statements. For 
example, when control is transferred to a 
subroutine by ON SPRITE GOSUB Y. 
then while the subroutine is being 
executed. SPRITE STOP is in effect and 
the current collision will lie registered. 
When the subroutine is finished, the 
program will immediately re enter the 
subroutine. This is avoided by putting 
the statement. SPRITE OFF. at the 




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beg. nnmg ol the subroutine and if 

required SPRITE ON at the end. 

Another way 
to move 

Some SV users will have noticed 
another way to move sprites in tfie 
Auckland SV club newsletter. 
P'J I SPRITE p, STEP(dx,dy),c,n. can be a 
useful command for moving one sprite 
faster than the methods discussed in this 
article. The p.c & n are the standard PUT 
SPRIVF attributes with dx and dy the 
increment values to be applied to the last 
x and y position of the sprite. 

However, on our machine, at least, we 
could not have more than one sprite on 
the screen at any one time if any sprite 
used the undocumented STEP variation 
of PUTSPRITE. We would welcome any 
reariei's comments or findings in this 
area. Just write to: "Moving Sprites", 
1 1 Mawson St, Lower Hutt. 

The lollowing program is intended to 
illustrate the above description ol STRIG. 
STICK and SPRITE functions. Use 
joystick no 1 to move the cross hairs and 
shoot at the enemy plane. 

II you would like a copy of this and the 
previous two Spcctravideo programs 
rather than typing them in, please send 
$5 plus a tape or disk to the above 
address. 

SOFTWflR€ R€VI€W 

From page 53 

Especially friendly is the continuity 
of text handling. My earliest files, 
prepared on the old 40-column 
Sandys, work quite well with the 
latest version. Even their special 
embedded commands are displayed 
in the latest manner. New 
commands and features just add 
quality, and never seem to upset 
older files. 

Sandys commands are relatively 
few, logical in designation for the 
most part, yet very flexible. Since 
they can be used together, you have 
the equivalent of an extensive 
formatting language. but with 
minimal memory work. 

The manual has been completely 
reworked. It is well indexed, quite 
readable, and is significantly 
improved. I can most warmly 
recommend this entire software- 
curn bookware package as a 
program especially good for direct 
composing at the Apple lie keyboard. 



64 



■ 



SP€CTRRVID€0 

Space shoot 

10 CLS : COLOR 15, 1 , 1 : SCREEN 

It 2 
20 CIRCLE(50,50),5,3:PAINT(5 

0,50) ,3 

30 CIRCLE (90,90) i 9, 3: PAINT (9 

0,30), 3 

40 CIRCLE(50,50),4,2, 3,0 

50 CIRCLE (90, SO;, 8, 2, 3,0 

60 CIRCLE(90,90),7,2,3,0 

70 C I RCLE i 50 , 50) , 3, 2, 3, 

80 CIRCLE I 30, 150), 5, &: PAINT < 

30, 150), 6 

90 CIRCLE (30, 150), 4, 8 

100 CIRCLE(30,150),3,8 

110 SC=0:CO=2 

120 GOTO 210 

130 Y=Y-C1: RETURN 

140 X=X+C2:Y=Y-C1: RETURN 

150 X=X+C2: RETURN 

160 X=X+C2:Y=Y+C1: RETURN 

170 Y=Y+C1: RETURN 

180 X=X-C2:Y=Y+C1: RETURN 

190 X=X-C2: RETURN 

200 X=X-C2:Y=Y-C1: RETURN 

210 FOR J= 1 TO 3 

220 U$="" 

230 FOR 1= 1 TO 8 

240 READ A 

250 U$=U*+CHR*(A) 

260 NEXT I 

270 SPRITE*<J)=U$ 

280 NEXT J 

290 DATA 0,16,16,16,254,16,1 

6, 16 

300 DATA 24,124,126,29,29,1? 

6,124,24 

310 DATA 0,24,24,60,60,24,24 

,0 

320 C2=4:C1=4:C3=2:C4=. 1 : RN= 

RNDC-TIME) 

330 X=200:Y=150 

340 FOR L= 1 TO 20 

350 Z 1 =-5 : C5= I NT ( RND ( 1 ) * 1 40 ) 

360 FOP I = 1 TO 100 



370 

380 

390 

400 

410 

420 

430 

160, 

44C 



STRIG(1)0N 

ON 3TRIG GOSUB ,530, 

Z1=Z1+C4:W=(.8*Z1 -3;+C5 

Z=(Zl+5)*25.5 

PUT SPRITE 5, (Z,W),C0,2 

DI=STICK(1) 

ON DI GOSUB 130,140,150, 

170, 180, 190,200 



LOCATE 40,120 : PR I NT "let 

enemy planes through" 

FOR H= 1 TO 5000: NEXT H 

END 

STPIGU.'OrT 

SOUND 6, 10: SOUND 7, 19: PL 

llv518c" 

SPRITE ON 



) PL 

450 NEXT:NEXT 
460 COLOR 1,11,2 
470 CLS: COLOR 1,11,2 
480 LOCATE 80, 80: PRINT "GAME 

OVER" 
490 LOCATE 40, 100: PRINT" You 
scored ";SC;" points but yo 
u" 

500 

20 
510 
520 
530 
540 
AY"< 
550 

560 ON SPRITE GOSUB 600 
570 PUT SPRITE 1 , (X, Y) , 6, 3: F 
OR K= 1 TO 20: NEXT K 
580 SPRITE OFF 
590 RETURN 
600 SPRITE OFF 

610 IF X<Z+2 AND X>Z-2 AND Y 
<W+2 AND Y>W-2 THEN SC=SC+50 

ELSE SC=SC+10 
620 LINE(225,0)-(.255, 15), 4, B 
F: LOCATE 230, 5: PRINT SC 
630 SB=WM0D256:SB=192-SB 
640 FOR K= 1 TO SB:W=W+1:PUT 

SPRITE 5, (Z,W),C0,2 
650 NEXT K:S0UND6, 15: SOUND/, 
1 3 : PLAY "si 1 v91 3c " : CO=CO+ 1 : I F 

CO: 15 THEN C0=2 
660 Z1=-5:C5=C5+50:I=1 
670 RETURN 



Swingman swings 



By Barbara Bridger 

This is an interesting version of the 
popular hangman game where you guess 
a word letter by letter. Correct letters 
provide jungle ropes (or Swingman and if 
the word is not guessed within the 
allotted number of chances. Swingman 
crashes to the ground. 

The screen layout and graphics are 
generally excellent, although I feel there 
is over use of flashing printing for 
instructions and progress information. 
Instructions are easy to follow with 
words up to nine letters long randomly 
selected from an extensive list. (While 
sugar is incorrectly spelt, colour has the 
New Zealand rather than American 
spelling. A lew words are duplicated). 

The game is challenging for adults 
since not too many guesses are allowed. 
(Altering line 2121 to TR=14 gives 
young children a more realistic chance.) 

The sight of a Tar^an-like figure 



swinging across the screen after getting 
a word correct is greatly enjoyed by | 
youngsters; so too is the sight of him not i 
making it when the word is not guessed. I 
Having the words in capitals only rather 
than lower case increases the difficulty J 
for younger children. 

The program is written in BASIC which 
allows you to determine how the various 
graphic and sound effects are achieved. 
Changing words in the list is easily done. 
Swingman requires the miniexpandei 
and 16K RAM expansion for SV318 
users, This can he avoided if the list of 
words is reduced by about 15. 

Overall, this tape program is a 
worthwhile acquisition for $18. How 
ever. there is room for minor 
improvements which can easily be made 
by the purchaser. This, in turn, will 
increase understanding of Spectravicfeo 
BASIC. 



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BITS i. E-.-CS 



I\!0vfi1>licr 1 :)S4 



65 



SP€CTRUM 



Beta is better 



By Gary Parker 



Although many excellent programs are 
available for the Spectrum, it isn't very 
often that a program appears which 
dramatically improves its usefulness. Of 
all the programs I have. I would include 
only Tasman's "Tasword" word 
processor and Hisoft's Pascal in this 
category - although I'm sure other 
Spectrum owners would include many 
other titles. 

But I have found a new program to add 
to the list. "Beta Basic", by Betasoft, is 
an amazing program which extends the 
Spectrum's BASIC language more than 
twofold, producing a language that puts 
the BASIC implementation of most 
micros to shame. 

"Beta Basic" provides more than 50 
new commands and functions for the 
48K Spectrum. lA simpler version for 
both 1 6K and 48K Spectrums may be 
available soon!. I have seen some BASIC 
extensions advertised which rely on the 
user entering the new commands in REM 
lines, or with USR calls. Not so with 
"Beta Basic". All commands are entered 
just like normal keywords, except using 
graphics instead of extended mode. 
While this does raise a slight problem of 
having to remember the keys used to 
obtain all those keywords, at least 
Betasolt has assigned the keys logically. 
For example. LOOP is on the L key, and 
CLOCK on the C key. 

While "Beta Basic" has too many 
features to cover in detail, here is a 
summary of the commands which most 
impress me. 

ALTER allows direct manipulation of 
the colour attributes. Many different 
forms of this command are possible, for 
example: 

ALTER INK 3. PAPtU 6 TO INK 7. PAPtK 0. 
FLASH 1 

which alters all magenta-and-yellow 

squares on the screen to black-and-white 
flashing ones. This command would be 
very useful for writing games programs. 

AUTO line numbering is a great boon 
for typing in long programs. Rather than 
having to type in each line number, the 
computer puts them on the screen so 
that you only have to type the 
statements. 

BREAK has been improved so that it 
will even stop machine code programs 
lor at least, those that don't alter the 
interrupt status). This is very handy for 
machine code programmers. 

The CLOCK command allows the 
Spectrum to tell the time although of 
course this is lost when the computer is 
turned off. A very powerful feature is the 
ability to call a subroutine after a 
specified time. 

DEF PROC allows named procedures 
to be created, just as with BBC BASIC. 
So if you had a procedure (subroutine! 
beginning at line 1000 with 
DEF PROC Check Answer 
then you could call this procedure with 
PROC Check Answer 

66 BPS&li.YIES November 1 084 



instead of GO SUB 1000, improving the 
structure and readability of the program. 

The only looping stucturc which 
BASIC normally provides is 
FOR.. NEXT 

"Beta Basic" adds 
DO . LOOP 
which can take several forms such as 

DOWHIIf- DO UNTIL. LOOP UNTIL 

Another useful command, sorely 
missed in BASIC, is ELSF: 
If answer = 1 THEN PRINT "correct": I I SE 
PRINT "wrong" 

Editing has been much improved. 
Moving the cursor rapid ly through long 
lines is easy, since it can be moved up 
and down as well as left and right. JOIN 
and SPLIT can be used to combine two 
lines into one. or separate a line into two. 

ON ERROR allows a subroutine to be 
accessed if an error occurs. For example, 
it BREAK is pressed, you could send the 
processor into a simulated NEW routine, 
just to scare the user, and then resume 
normal running! 

Entire strings can be POKEd. So you 
could move the bottom third of the 
screen to the top third in a flash with 
POKE 16384, ME,VIORY5::;20480TO 22527; 

SCROLL can move any rectangle of 
the screen, in any direction, any number 
of pixels at a time. ROLL acts similarly, 
except with wrap around. These 
commands produce windows not unlike 
those of the Sinclair QL. 

USING allows numbers to be 
formatted when PRINTed. So for 
example. numbers could be 

automatically output with a leading 
dollar sign, and two decimal places. 

The method of entering functions with 
"Beta Basic" is a little more unusual than 
entering commands. You type in the 
keyword FN followed by a letter and a S 
or i. As soon as either of these last two 
characters is typed, the FN is replaced 



with the proper name of the function. For 
example, if you type: 
PRINT FN M( 

you get 
PRIMT VI CM 

More than 20 new functions are 
implemented. There are faster versions 
of RND. COS, and SIN icalled RNDM. 
COSE, and SINE). The AND, OR. and 
XOR commands, normally only available 
to machine code programmers, are 
present. DPEEK and DPOKE allow easy 
manipulation of two-byte numbers. 
SCRN$ works like SCREENS, except that 
user-defined characters are also 
recognised. 

Other "Beta Basic" commands and 
functions include cursor control codes, 
DEF KEY, block DELETE, EXIT IF, FILL, 
GET. KEYIN. improved LIST and LLIST, 
GO TO ON, GO SUB ON, improved 
PLOT. POP. RENUM, SORT. TRACE. 
BINS, CHARS, FILL, FILLED. HEX to DEC 
and vice versa, INSTRING, MEMORYS. 
and MOD. It takes a 60-page manual to 
explain all the new features of "Beta 
Basic". 

"Beta Basic" controls the new 
commands by using the interrupts, and 
so when it is in memory, everything is 
slowed down slightly. I timed a simple 
FOR NEXT loop, "and found it about 10 
percent slower than normal. 

However, "Beta Basic" also speeds up 
certain operations. GO TOs, GO SUBs. 
and RETURNs are much faster, because 
the normal situation where the processor 
starts at the first line of the program, and 
checks each line until it finds the one it is 
meant to jump to, has been changed so 
that the processor goes straight to the 
correct line. This can speed up long 
programs considerably. Combined with 
the fast versions of RND and suchlike. 

Turn to page 76 



Winners & a new contest 



The winner of August's "Gnasher" 
contest was Michael Monti. of 
Wellington. Michael's entry produced 
results which were as good as any other 
entry, and his program was the shortest. 

The winner of September's "Wheelie" 
contest was C.P. Rhodes, of Napier, 
whose program used a clever combi 
nation of block graphics and plotting to 
produce large, accurate lettering. 

I have received some contest entries 
with up to 72c postage on them. 
Cassettes cost only 30c to post in New 
Zealand (with or without the case). Nor 
is it worth sending entries by airmail. It 
saves only a day at the most, and I'm not 
that strict about the closing date. 



This month, a copy of Anthony 
Camacho's excellent book. Drive Your 
Spectrum, will be awarded to the person 
who sends in the best entry to this 
contest: write a program which will draw 
a clock face on the screen, and keep the 
time by moving the hands. 

Send your entries, preferably on 
cassette, to: 

Gary Parker, 
Clock Contest, 
P.O. Box 4063. 
Christchurch. 

The closing date is November 25. 
Cassettes will be returned if you include 
a stamped, self addressed envelope. 




ZX SPECTRUM BEGINS A NEW ERA IN 
EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT 
Spectrum instructs visually and systematically. Information 
can be replayed as often as required to any number of 
Children, offering a highly sophisticated yet simple to use 
learning tool. Traditional forms of education can get dull . . . 
ZX Spectrum changes all that 1 Specially devised programs 
turn chores like spelling and punctuation into loads of 
learning fun. 




DAVID REID 

ELECTRONICS 



ITS CONVENIENT ... SO EASY TO USE 

Spectrum plugs directly into your TV giving you the perfect 
picture every time, and when not in use. can be easily stored. 
Spectrum comes with all the leads necessary for 
connection to you' TV and any domestic cassette recorder. 
No need to buy a special data recorder. 

ZX SPECTRUM IS THE ALLROUNDER. THERE'S 
MUCH MORE FOR EVERYONE! 

Many computers are designed specifically for business, 
some are just games machines, but the ZX Spectrum Home 
Computer is a true allrounder! It's a superb educator, a 
brilliant entertainer and competent business machine! 

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67 



SP€CTRUM 



.••v-x-y.:-:*:-:----.^. . . x .:.x-x-x-:-:-x-x- :■-.-:■ .-;■... x---:-.vx:vx-Xv.v>.-.'.-.v.v.%-:v.v.- 



Connecting new keyboards 

By Steven Cragg 



The keyboard is one ol the most 
criticised parts of the ZX Spectrum, so it 
is no real surprise that a "proper 
keyboard" is one of the most popular 
additions. 

Many purpose-built keyboards are 
available overseas but generally cost 
$150 S200 which is outside the price 
range of most homo computerists. So. 
unless they are going to soldier on using 
the original keyboard, most people must 
design and build theii own keyboard. 

There are two main ways to approach 
'.his jot). The firs! method is to 
completely build your own keyboard by 
buying the keyswitches: the second is to 



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Over TOO titles available trom the following software 
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Selected titles at Whitcoulls and leading retailers 
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n.i.ni.'HH.|.iimj.w.m:i.nHTinnr 



buy some of the surplus keyboards 
frequently advertised here and overseas, 
and modify them to work on the 
Spectrum, 

For both methods, you will need to 
refer to diagram 1 which shows how the 
Spectmm keyboard is divided into an 8 x 
5 grid called a matrix. Each of the keys is 
a switch which when pressed, connects 
the perpendicular lines of the grid 
together at the point where the key is 
located. When you press a key or keys, 
the computer can, by looking at the 
various rows and columns, decide what 
keys are being pressed and take the 
appropriate action. 

So the way to build a keyboard for the 
Spectrum is to buy 40 keyswitches and 
wire them into the matrix the Spectrum 
uses. The actual wiring is tlie easy part 
the hardest part is getting the keys 
properly spaced and all level. 

This method of construction has the 
disadvantage of being very expensive. 
The keyswitches and keytops are 
difficult :<> get hold of and are expensive 
when you (Jo find them. If you do opt for 
this method decide on a few things !for 
example, do you want a full sized space 
bar or a large enter key?! before you rush 
in and buy all the parts. Remember you 
are going to build yourself a keyboard 
only once, so make sure it includes all 
the options you want (within reason!. A 
few decisions at the beginning can save 
expensive mistakes. 

The second method is slightly cheaper 
and has completely different problems of 
construction. It involves buying a ready 
built surplus keyboard and modifying it 
to conform to tlie Spectrum matrix. 

Modification involves cutting all the 
tracks on the printed circuit board on 
which keyboards are mounted. This is 
often difficult as most of these boards 
are double sided: but with a little 
perseverence it should not prove 
impossible. 



The next step is to wire, as before, 
onto the back of the keyswitches to 
produce the desired matrix. This rather 
drastic modification is necessary 
because no commercial keyboards use 
the same keyboard matrix as the 
Spectrum. With this method, you do not 
have to use expensive electronics to 
achieve the desired result - a working 
Spectrum keyboard. 

The other advantage of using a ready 
built keyboard is that all the keys are 
level and have the same spacing. When 
buying a keyboard, make sure it is 
unencoded. ASCII-encoded keyboards 
are generally more expensive and it is 
pointless to pay more than you have to. 

It is easy enough to connect a new 
keyboard to the Spectrum as long as you 
wire it properly. All that's left to do is 
connect the new keyboard to the 
computer. If you have ever opened Lip a 
Spectrum, you will know the keyboard is 
connected to the circuit board via two 
flat cables, one of five way and one of 
cghi-way. These cables correspond to 
the rows and columns of diagram 1. 

When connecting a new keyboard, 
you first disconnect the original cables 
by sliding them out of their connectors 
and replacing them with small pieces of 
filed-down veroboard which should have 
the lines from the new keyboard soldered 
onto them. 

I cannot tell you which way the lines 
go as there are so many different 
Spectrum versions with just about all 
possible ways of connecting the 
keyboard. However, it shouldn't be too 
difficult, with a small amount of 
experimentation. to get the new 
keyboard working. 

These are only some of the methods 
available to you. For example, I am at the 
moment adding a computer controlled 
keyboard to my Spectrum. So don't 
think these two methods are the only 
ones. Happy keyboarding! 



Full catalogue available by sending S.A.E. to 
above address. 

SEE YOU AT THE SHOW 



CAPS 
SHUT 


Z 


X 


C 


V 


A 


s 


n 


F 


G 





w 


i 


R 


T 


' 


2 


3 


1 


r > 





9 


8 


7 


6 


P 


O 


1 


U 


Y 


ENTER 


L 


K 


J 


H 


B 


N 


M 


SYMBOL 
SHIFT Si'ACt 



Diagram 1 



68 



BITS & BYTCS November 198-1 



TRS80/SVST€/V\ 80 






.. ■ . .-.v. - - 






ENBase: impressive sophistication 



By Gordon Findlay 

Several readers have written recently 
with questions or comments on various 
DOSes. We intend to have a number of 
reviews and background articles on them 
coming up but what do you think? Write 
in and let me know. What operating 
system do you use? Why' What ; s 
wrong with it? What arc its good points 7 
Would you like to change il a better one 
came along? Let's get a real discussion 
going aboul this. 

Computers are often used for storing 
and retrieving information. Programs 
have been written to store information 
(on disk usually) in various ways, and to 
link information together to form a 
database. A number of programs arc 
available for the '80, but none so 
sophisticated as a product from 
Southern Software (UKi called ENBase. 
This is a truly relational database, unlike 
all the others I know of, which arc non- 
relational. 

I assume you know what records and 
fields are it not, there is a briel 

explanation in the beginners' column this 
month. Most file managers will input, 
store, sort, display and update records 
with a mixed field structure, and indexed 
on one or perhaps a few important fields. 
Sales records might be indexed on 
customer name, medical records by 
patient's name, or whatever. The held on 
which the program indexes the data is 
called a key field, and typically it is 
possible to sort or access data on only 
one or a very few key fields which, most 
importantly, must be nominated in 
advance. 

ENBase is a relational data base. I have 
found this concept very difficult to 
explain and my guess is that the 

textbook writers have too because the 
literature on relational databases is 
pretty hard going. The basic idea is this 
(the language used is mine, not fiom the 
manual): 



Values collected 
into sets 



All the values of each field arc 
collected into sets. For a medical 
database, there will be a set containing 
all the patients' names, another 
containing all drugs prescribed, perhaps 
another containing surgery performed. 
These sets are made up of as many fields 
as there is available disk space, on up to 
four drives. Each set is ordered and 
maintained separately from all the 
others, so a change in one value is easily 
made. If, for example, a drug is renamed, 
just one element in the drug set must be 
renamed. 

Links between the sets describe 
individual records in the conventional 
sense. There might be a link from Mrs 
Smith (in the patient set) to penicillin in 
the drug set. As many links as you like 
can be established. Mrs Smith can be 



linked to as many other drugs as needed, 
and many patients can be linked to 
penicillin. 

This structure has a number of 
advantages. It is very easy to alter the 
structure of a database, say by adding a 
new field in each record. This can be a 
real problem with other programs. A 
change (like the change of name) can be 
made just in one set; the links between 
them are not disturbed, so all the 
affected records are automatically 
"updated". I am using words like "field' 
and "record" in their usual meanings to 
relate ENBase to more lamiliar material. 

These links between sets can be 
exploited in all sorts of ways. Suppose 
we were interested in all patients who 
had token a particular drug. This means 
picking out an element of the drug set, 
and finding all trie patients linked to it. 
The patients, of course, are linked to 
other sets, so it would be easy 10 see if a 
particular drug was often associated 
with a particular surgical procedure, or 
even if users of penicillin were slow to 
pay their lulls. 

This system obviates the need to store 
many pieces ol information repeatedly. 
Of course, the links must be stored 
somehow, so the relational system may 
require more disk space. 

Records in ENBase are not of a fixed 
length, This means no waste space is 
required to allow, say for the longest 
name you might wan; to use. In a 
conventional database, each record will 
be a fixed length, and they may tie 
blocked together in one of a number of 
ways. Because this is not required with 



ENBase. much greater flexibility is 

possible. 

It is also possible to pre-edit the 
information to be found in some sets, 
sav always numeric, always upper cose. 
or what have you. It is also possible 10 
close sets, not allowing additional values 
to be added, Why? Well for one thing, to 
limit the range of options is to limit the 
possibility of typing errors. 

The amount of data handled is limited 
only by disk space, not memory space. A 
database can span up to four drives, but 
all the disks must be mounted at once. A 
hard disk is supported through the usual 
DOS interlace. 



Above trivia 
and the trivial 



ENBase is not a trivial program, and 
will not be used for trivial tasks. The first 
step must be to analyse the data to be 
manipulated. The more carefully the data 
is analysed, the easier it will be to use 
ENBase. While it is possible to 
manipulate data in a startling number of 
ways, this analysis will ensure the task 
goes as smoothly as possible. 
Thereafter. ENBase is entirely menu 
driven. 

Sensible prompts are used, anu :t is 
usuolly«possible to get some explanation 
of what each entails from the program. 
Entry of an ambiguous response will 
generate a submenu. There are menus 
for starting a new database, adding data. 
deleting, editing and renaming data, and 
producing reports. Reports may be 



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displayed on the screen 01 printed. 

Report formats are regarded a;; simply 
another par: of the: database, able to be 
edited and changed in the same ways. 
Reports may be written in disk as well, 
for loading into a word processor. Data 
to be reported on may be selected in a 
number of ways, such as these examples 
isome taken Irom (he manual): 

• all employees with a particular 
salary; 

• ad employees with a salary greater 
than $10,000; 

• all employees with a salary between 
$10,000 and $20,000; 

• all employees with a salary greater 
than their managers. 

Conditions may be combined: all 
employees with salaries greater than 
$20,000 or whose manager's salary is 
less than twice their's. Any expression 
you could write in a BASIC IF statement 
is allowed as a selection option. 

Data may also be selected using 
"wildcards" so that all names starling 
with "Ga" or all cheques wrtien in 
December 1983 are selected and printed 
out. 

Output from ENBase may he 
converted using a supplied utility 
program into a format which can be used 
with VisiCalc. 

ENBase consists of two parts a 

machine code access manager which 
takes care of all disk input anci output, 
and a menu manager which is the main 
program and surprisingly, is written in 
BASIC. Surprising because it is so fast. 
The BASIC program accesses the disk 
only through the access manager located 
in high memory. All input and output is 
buffered, and the system will use as 
much memory as you have to maximise 
the size of the buffers, thereby 
minimising disk accesses. 

Whenever I am using a program which 
stores information. I worry about how 
much I will need to retype when 
something breaks, the power fails, or I 
make a silly mistake. FNBase has a 
concept of a "comitt point" usually 
one step up the nested ladder of menus 

where the disk is updated atiti the data 
saved against errors. 

Because ENBase is written partly in 
BASIC, it is possiole to customise it and 
there is an extensive discussion of this in 
the manual. It is also possible to use the 
machine code portion alone, and to write 
special programs in BASIC to operate on 
databases in ways which aren't pan o' 
ENBase. This is clone in an interesting 
manner, using many of the Disk BASIC 
keywords with different meanings, so 
allowing the BASIC interpreter I. ill 
access to the databases without 
venturing into machine code 

Documentation is important in a 
product like this. FNBase has two sorts 
of documentation. The first is a well 
presented, relatively readable manual ol 
about 1 50 pages. 1 Ins is clear, and once 
the underlying concepts are understood, 
very good. A number of tutorials 
which consist of demonstration runs of 
ENBase. with a commentary, covering 
the mam points of everyday use ol 
ENBase are also supplied. 
70 lil'SSBYtFS '- ■■■■• <••■■■■■■ ':>''- 



■.,„ . -,:.:.:.:. ,....,. «-.:-:-:■ ■ ■ --'. ■:■:■■ •..•.-.•■ ■ ■• 

I can't escape the feeling that at some 
point someone who knows quite a bit 
about computers is going to have to set 
the system up if it is to be used by non 
compuiensts. I had to alter the tutorials 
before i could see anything just because 
of the different ways the various DOSes 
use to enter BASIC with zero files, and 
reserving high memory. 

There is a lot more to be said, but not 
the space to say it. I fiave tried to give 
the flavour of ENBase in terms more 
commonly used thar- its own tecnnicO' 
terms. ENBase is compatible with the 
Modei 1 and Mode 1 3. and Ihe System 
80, of course, under TRDOS NEWDOS. 
LDOS and DOSPLUS and probably any 
others you have. It comes on two disks 
for the Model 1. one disk for the Model 
3. with a utility for copying with just one 
drive in case your DOS can't do that. 
There is also a utility to relocate the 
machine code part To handle different 
memory sizes, the tutorial scripts, a 
sample database and some sample 
BASIC programs to illustrate 

programming using the access manager. 

Altogether, this is a most impressive 
package. Typical users will be business 
users with relatively unstructured data or 
unsuited to fixed length fields. Examples 
given include farming records, medical 
and dental records, sales, customer files, 
purchasing, real estate records, schools 
anci colleges, and household accounts. 
Expense alone would rule out the last; 
but the others seem feasible and thee 
are many other feasible uses. 



:-:-:-:-: :: 



From page 63 

Where it scores over many full LOGO 
implementations, and certainly the 
current Apple one in schools, is that it 
will work in any mode [although not in 
the 20K modes for unadjusted disk- 
based machines), has an easy on-screen 
text command and a simplified editor 
uses the standard BBC operating system 
editing procedures. It also allows full 
access to all '" ' OS commands anci VDU 
calls. 

This makes for a very good 
introductory environment, at the cost of 
the loss of the processing capabilities of 
full LOGO. For many classrooms, that 
nay not be significant. 

A linal good point is that the special 
function keys are left free for the user to 
dedicate. Hence you can enter the 
simplest commands into these for a 
beginner ;and give a graphic template 
over each SF key), put the longer 
commands in lor an experienced user to 
save typing, or even redefine the keys as 
you go lo have procedure names in 
them. 

' 1 uMlegraphics" is an excellent and 
apparently cheap) product. However, it is 
only a portion of full LOGO. 
Coincidentally. a lull ROM-based LOGO 
and PASCAL have just been released for 
the BBC and next month, these will be 
put under the spotlight. 



iRcvitiw cops' supplied !'\ 

AucUandi 



■Yio.'i mo* v 



VZ200 correction 

In the VZ200 column in September 
issue of Bits & Bytes, the function 
auto in the how to use should have: 
been POKE 31469 not 31479. 



S€Gfl 



Four logical operators 



By Brian Gibbs 



The four logical operators - which are 
given only a brief mention in the Sega 
manual are NOT, AND. OR and XOR. 
These four commands work in binary 
decimal numbers are converted to their 
binary equivalents, calculated, and then 
converted back to decimal. 

The NOT operation works on single 
numbers. The bits of the binary number 
are inverted to obtain the result An 
example is NOT 9: 

9 = 1001 binary 
results = 0110 binary 

the answer ,s 6 in decimal 

The AND operation states that if both 
bits are a 1, the result is 1. Otherwise, 
[he result is 0. An example is 10 AND 6: 

10 - 1010 binary 
6 = 01 10 binary 

result =0010 binary which equals 2 in 
decimal. 

The OR operation states that where 
any bit is a 1 , then a 1 is put in the result 
column. For example 10 OR 6: 
10 = 1010 binary 
6 = 01 10 binary 



result = "110 binary which is decimal 

12_ 

The exclusive OR or XOR operation is a 
iittle more difficult. The rule is that if 
both b.ts in a column are 1. the result is 
O. But .f only one 1 of the bits is a 1 . the 
result is a 0. For example, 10 XOR 6: 
10 = 1010 binary 
6 - 0' 10 binary 
resull = 1 100 binary or 12 decimal. 

You can check the operations by 
typing PRINT 10 XOR 6, for example, on 
your computer. When you enter the 
command by touching the CR key. the 
result. 12, will be displayed. 

The main uses of these commands are 
m machine code programming and for 
perlorming such functions as sprite 
collision detection. They will also be 
user! more often when the disk drive is 
used. 

Grandstand Leisure has started a Sega 
user's group which, lor a $39.95 lee. 
entitles you in six issues o' a two- 
monthly magazine and two free 
programs on cassette, 



BOOKS 

■■■■■-■■■"■-■■.•■.■■ .-.-■^ 

Six for Elks, three fo 






By Pip Forer 



Of the nine new books reviewed here 
for Acorn computers, six are for the 
Electron {for some reason nicknamed the 
Elk In Britain) and three for the BBC. On 
the face of it, this is a sign of the times. 
However, it is also noteworthy that most 
of the Electron books are derivatives of 
existing titles lor the BBC. The 
alterations needed to cope with the 
Electron imost significantly no Teletext 
and slower speedl are such that 
converting a BBC book to the Electron is 
a small matter. 

This adaptation may not be a bod 
thing. The best of the bunch is in fact 
"Advanced Programming Techniques for 
the Electron" (McGregor and 
Watt Addison Wesley), an adaptation 
from their outstanding BBC book of 
(almost! the same name. At S37. it is not 
cheap but for the more experienced user 
it is highly recommended. 

"The Electron Programmer" (Gee and 
James -Granada) is aimed more at the 
novice. It is an adequate book in what is 
a crowded market. It runs in quite a way 
ahead of the lamentable "Getting 
Started on your BBC Micro" iHartner and 
Gollner Futurai but behind the beautifully 
produced and well written "Acorn Guide 
to the Electron" ICryer and 
Cryer.Penguini. This is a first rate 
introduction and rescues the Cryers Irom 
the disappointing graphics text they 
have produced. A very sound $14 
investment that runs a new owner from 
Babbage through to Booleans via Basic. 

Also from Penguin is "Games and 
Other Programs for the Electron" i$14). 
The book is a listing of listings from the 
British user magazine. Becbus. The 
programs look all right ana some are 
downright impressive but who wants to 
hammer in someone else's unannotated 
and inadequately explained listings? 

The same can be asked of "40 
Educational Games for the Electron" 



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(Apps/Granadal, "21 Games for the 
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Ewbank Granada) and "36 Challenging 
Games for the BBC Micro" (Rogers and 
Callender, Interface). At least the last 
two of these don't pretend to be 
educational! 

As a genre, books such as this puzzle 
me considerably. I have never met 
anyone who has obtained pleasure or 
learnt much about programming by 
slavishly copying in someone else's 
listings on a variety of random topics. 
Most of these books offer just this 
experience and if that is your bag las the 
argot has it), then go for it. Not for me or 
mine though. 

The final book is "Disk Systems lor 
the BBC Micro" (Sinclair Granadai. This 
deals with the BBC disk system and 
several of its early alternatives and 
covers the system and the art of disk file 
usage. There is arguably a need for a text 
aimed at disk use to supplement the BBC 
manuallsi and this book is uselul for this. 
However, it never really gets below the 
surface of BBC DOS. 

A lot of the information is repeated 
from the manuals which may be no bad 
thing when it is now all grouped in one 
place. A valid criticism though is that the 
text tends to spin things out to expand 
the book size and all in all. the additional 
material lacks substance. One would 
expect that better texts on disk use ore in 
the offing. 




Your First Apple II Program, 
by Rodney Zaks, illustrated by 
Daniel La Noury. Sybex. 
$21.95. Reviewed by Carol 
Miles. 

Let's creciil the artist, Daniel Le 
Noury, more than the author for an 
interesting book. He created 
amusing cartoon characters to 
represent aspects of programming. 
The program snake is a series of 
linked boxes "executed" box by 
box. The mischievous bug is present 
too. Perhaps it is significant the 
programmer is represented by Dino 
the dinosaur — is Le Noury trying to 
tell us something about Zaks' 
exposition? 

It is a visual irony that the 
illustration showing mill wheel 
buckets going around on a 
mechanically impossible way lies 
opposite the page on which Dino 
says. "Remember. . .be exact." 



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PRESENTING THE 

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Introduction to ihe new 
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A collection of programs worthy 
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BITS & RY-ES November 1984 71 



BOOKS 



HflRDWflR€ R€VI€UJ 



This book is supposed to he about 
one's first Applesoft program. It 
seems most inappropriate to even 
mention machine language instr- 
uctions or to discuss that there are 
Integer, Applesoft, as well as 
downloadable (and alterable) 
nonresident BASICs. Nor would you 
expect to do flowcharting on your 
first attempt. Yet much of the two 
largest chapters are on this topic. 

Zaks seems to confuse Apple with 
less well thought out machines. For 



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example, two pages are used to 
explain how to make one's program 
listing more readable by formatting 
with blanks apparently never 

realising that Applesoft auto- 
matically formats LISTings, and it is 
totally unnecessary to do this by 
hand. 

There are many small traps for the 
first user: LOAD and SAVE must 
have a file name when being sent to 
disk storage, but not to cassette; 
RUN, and RUN (filename) do not do 
the same things; Applesoft rounds 
off numbers, it does not truncate; 
illustrations of what you are 
supposed to see with "PRINT 
A,B,C" do not represent what you 
actually see on the monitor; why 
should the variable name, AB1. not 
be legal, but STUDENT1 be legal? 
On, and on . . . 

If you enjoy cute illustrations of 
cartoon characters, you might find 
this book amusing. As a text from 
which to learn your first Applesoft 
program, there are cheaper, better 
organised books with fewer errors. 



"Your First BASIC Program" by 

Rodn;iy Zaks, Sybex. 182pp. 
$19.95. Reviewed by Gordon 
Findlay. 

This is a well laid out. entertaining 
introduction to BASIC programming. 
It assumes no knowledge of 
computers to begin with, and 
goes just far enough to 
enable independent progress 
subsequently. 

The version of BASIC used is a 
relatively machine independent 
dialect, obviously based on the 
Microsoft family. Dr Zaks covers the 
language statement by statement, 
with lots of examples and 
demonstration output. There is also 
a worthwhile discussion of how to 
create a program, including design 
and debugging. I feel much more 
emphasis should have been placed 
on the use of subroutines as an aid to 
effective design. 

Each chapter has a selection of 
questions and exercises, most of 
which have answers provided. A 
glossary explains commonly used 
jargon, and a list of the more usual 
reserved words is included as well. 

Layout is excellent, with good use 
of a second colour to highlight 
important ideas. Some of the 
cartoons are real little gems. 



From page 36 

"Thinkjet" printer is an ink jet unit. 

printing at 1 50 characters per 
second. 

The 3. Sin microfloppy disk unit 
holds up to 710 kilobytes of data, 
equivalent to about 175 pages of 
text. It weighs only 5.5 pounds and 
runs for eight to 1 2 hours on a 
charge. It is not cheap almost 

$2000 for a single drive but you 
could probably get away with one 
because of the HP1 10s RAMdisk. 

The Hewlett Packard HP-110 is 
one of the leading "state of the art" 
portable computers. While 

expensive, it packs the power of a 
conventional desktop 1 6 bit 

computer into a remarkably small 
and flexible package. My only 
disappointment was the lack of a 
standard composite video output as 
well as the LCD display. I am not yet 
a fan of undersized hard-to-read LCD 
displays for computer use, although 
this one is certainly getting close to 
very good. But if I had that much 
spare cash lying around looking for a 
use, Hewlett-Packard would get it. 



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72 



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BI1S& BYTES November ',984 73 



HH«*-:->:-KKHHO« ....■■■■ ■■'■-■■ ---■ --:■-- .-:-:■-: ..■•--:-:■ , - .-. ■■.... . ...w. ; . : .v v . ............ ... ..,,,......... ...-.--■...-.. 



fiPPL€ 

hh«*-:->:-kkhHO« 

Wizardry: v\ 

By Alex and Fred Wong 

With the Christmas holidays just an 
office party or a school social away, we 
thought it might be nice 10 look into the 
lighter side of Apple life. First up. we'll 
compare Wizardry, that classic Apple 
adventure, against some other games 
you might like to put your holiday time 
into. Then a look at the Golden Delicious 
games that not only entertain but also 
educate. 

Why Wizardry? Why not check out 
something newer like The Coveted 
Mirror instead, you might ask. Because 
Wizardry, despite its age. still sets the 
standard for Apple adventure games, 
and most people know something of it. 
Besides which, it's my personal 
favourite. 

Written in Pascal, Wizardry is based on 
Dungeons and Dragons which is a 
fascinating game if there are enough 
willing players and no shortage of 
imagination. Wizardry has both players 
and imagination, and so benefits from a 
more established framework than most 
adventures. It is what we iFreri and me, 
that is! call an interactive adventure, as 
opposed to a graphic or a text adventure. 

Interactive adventures like Wizardry. 
Ultima and the Temple Of Apshoi are 
played by controlling the hero directly, 
usually via single key commands that 
attempt to simulate real reaction, while 
graphic and text adventures like the 
Coveted Mirror, Transylvania ami Zork 
make you control characters by sentence 
or word prompts as if they were another 
person. Although sentence or word 
prompts may allow for more variety in 
response, single key commands provide 
more direct manipulation of the 
surroundings and the specific action 
controls allow (or more martial pursuits 
(if you like fighting after all. you can 
run!) 

The main difference though, between 
the two types (for graphic and text 
adventures are basically the same one 
just has no pictures- is thai Wizardry and 
its ilk are much more flexible in object 
(basically the acquirement of power and 
its attendant, money! than Transylvania 
and its friends, in which the object is 

Hands-on holiday 






GOtMN «uaous 

GAMES FOR 
THE APPLE 

COMPUTE 




A tasty mixture. . . Wizardry and Golde 

more often than not the achievement of 
a particular goal (such as rescuing a 
usually ungrateful princess). 

Because of this, interactive adventures 
allow much more freedom ol action in 
their imaginary world, while a graphic or 
text adventure often has one. and only 
one. correct way of advancing through 
it. sometimes stubbornly tied to the 
syntax of a certain phrase' After many 
frustrating hours traipsing through the 
picturesque but unyielding scenes of 
Transylvania. I know I'm not ready for 
that kind ol pictorial puzzle. 



Playing 
Wizardry 



Of course, it's not only for those 
abstract points ol supposed superiority 
that I favour Wizardry. It plays quite 
differently to anything else as well, 
Although none of the interactive 
adventure displays are quite as 



Just talking about all that 
programming makes me itch but if you 
actually like it. then we've got the thing 
for you to occupy the summer break. We 
would like you to write the best 
educational mathematics program you 
can and send it to us (no, it's not just to 
help me with my maths! by no later than 
the end of January. We'll judge the best 
entry and the winner will receive the 
Temple of Apshai from Epyx and Dark 
Forest from Sirius, and have the winning 



program published in Sirs & Bytes. 

The only criteria are that your program 
be original. mathematical and 
educational. You can send it on disk 
(which will be returned providing you 
include a stamped, self-addressed 
envelope to: 

Hands On Holidays 
PO Box 47-149. 
Ponsonby, 
Auckland. 



n D&licious documentation. 

impressive as The Quest's dragon scene 
(or many of the other pictures either, 
come to think of it), Wizardry does come 
close with its three dimensional line 
drawings and most interactive 
adventures (Temple ol Apshai springs to 
mind) provide a lot more information on 
the status of the hero for heroes, or 
heroines with Wizardry) such as their 
names, health, class (professional, not 
social), what spells they have and what 
commands are available. Wizardry. 
partly because it does not redraw the 
entire scene, is also faster than most and 
there isn't too much of a time lag. 

Wizardry and such are more martial in 
nature ano this is reflected ;ii the large 
number of different armaments i f or a 
price! with which they may be equipped. 
There are also 50 different spells 
available to the right character which 
gives Wizardry an angle that practically 
no other game has. Each of the six 
characters (most adventures feature one 
hero only! are individually controllable 
during any ol the fighting and the 
sophistication of the opposing monsters 
.s such that very often those controls arc- 
absolutely necessary. Let me openly 
admit I like these violent games as well 
as those specifically non violent ones. 
which most graphics and text 
adventures are. 

Aside from all this, the characters you 
create m Wizardry are inevitably 
endearing las Free! found out when he 
tried to send a group of specially created 
kamakaze samurai to discover the length 
of one dark tunnel and brought them all 
back before they'd reached halfway!. 
Turn to page 76 



74 



-5&!i v IFS Nov 



I 934 



BIND€RS! 

for BITS & BYTES 



$14.95 EACH 






We now have available 

binders to hold your copies of BITS 8c BYTES. 

We have opted for the same type of binder 

used last year (pictured) as these provide 

high quality protection in an attractive finish. 

These are available in two styles. 

STYLE 1: With the words "BITS & BYTES. VOL 2, 

September 1983-August 1984". 
(For those who have a complete volume.) 

STYLE 2: With the words "BITS 8c BYTES" only. 
(For recent subscribers c trose with o -nixture of vcli.T>es) 
Each 3incer holes 11 magazines 

Order now as stocks are limited!! 
Please use the book club orderform in the 
centre of the magazine and be sure to 
note which style of wording you require. 



Cost: $14.95 per binder 




AMATEUR 
RADIO 

Another facet of 

Home Computing 

• Morse Code Reception and Transmission 

• Radioteletype 

• Packet Radio 

• Amateur Radio Satellites 

Your personal computer can decode and send morse code and radioteletype. 
Use amateur radio to talk" to other amateurs around the world. 

To rapidly exchange data between computers, new systems, such as AMTOR and Packet Radio have recently been 

developed by Radio Amateurs. 

At this moment there are several amateur communication satellites in earth orbit. Home computers are used to track 
these satellites and decode telemetry on satellite beacons This data includes conditions on board the spacecraft and 

results of on-board scientific experiments. 

For more information and details of the nearest Amateur Radio Club, write to: 

General Secretary. NZ Association ot Radio Transmitters 

P.O. Box 40-525. Upper Hutt. 

Join NZART and receive the monthly magazine Break-In 
for the latest developments in Amateur Radio. 



BIISSBVTES November 1984 75 



CLfiSSIFI€DS 



nPPL€ 



JOYSTICK I'oi Apple II t |»r sale, SSO, Self- 
centering. Write in Alistair Stevens, 65 Russell 
St. Duilcdill i>: phone "J I 245. 

WANTK1) SK or Super Lspandci lor VIC 20. 
Write lo A. Snook. ftS \s v -oi Rd, Hamilton or 
phone ?'» KM. 

WAMKI) TKSSn. Am condition that works. 
Phone 4380 collect ■\shbiii;on or write Shane. 
l?'» drove Sireei. -Vshhurion. 

/OUk I named lo annuel Rank Adventurer ot 
belter. Send Treasures ttnd Score to A.J. Boyd. 
Iladlield Mouse, ('ollecaak', Waneailiti 

IKS-Jill MOD 3 WWIII) Willi or nilhoill 

drive, Write P.O. Uo\ 304". Richmond oi 
phone Mike MeClure, M"M Richmond. 

DISK DRIVE BARGAIN* Brand new Sluijiarl 
XII tk dsdd suitable for Spartacus disk controller 
complete with case and power supply below retail 
cos.1 "I bare drive and 12 innnth guarantee. 
limited flock available. Write for details to: 
COMSKC, Box 3(1, Waihi Beaeb South. 

SYSTKM 80 Primer Interface complete with 
iiiterfiice S95. Write P.O. Bo\ 30. Waihi Beach 
South. 

SYSTKM Ml I Pf'RADKS Internal disk 
eontroller. clock speed, video desliteh. repairs. 
Send SAI-. to Knnrlacus Micro, Box II. Waihi. 
Phone (081631 7571. 

PRI.N 1 KM circuit board tot ncouslicullv conpled 
modem. l-.es NR22II delectoi. ?67 lone 
seneraior. plus several opanips. RS232 or IT I 
inpul oiilput. Sell-powered or ear be driven 
from Commodore 5-vol; supplies. Reliable with 
bulletin boards, mainframe links, but mixed 
success in aeou-tic-to acoustic linkups. Hoard, 
precision tcsistors and cnpacilors. loam 
insulators, circuit and piuoiil diagrams. 
ir.siriK-tioii> ">25. All-up cost around SI In if you 
have good mnk box. lor experienced electronics 
people only, lay Mann. 330 Ceiiluurus Kotlil. 
Christchurch 2. 

KOK SAI.K V7.-200 computer with V/ invaders. 

L'iam book of eaiiics and free membership lo a 
games club. Onh, loin mom h> old. SI 50. (X). Paid 
l-amularo. !42 South Rd, Masterton. Pli 83-534. 



From page 74 

And one treats all these little alter-egos 
as comrades rather than just strangers. 

Not for 

eating 

Well, now that I've aired all my 
reasons lor liking Wizardry better, let's 
get on to what you can do if you'd rather 
write your own than buy a game 
ready made. Do what Fred has done and 
pick a Golden Delicious oil the shelf. No* 
for eating, though. The book, 
Techniques For Creating Golden 
Delicious Games For The Apple 
Computer is available with an optional 
two disks that contain all the programs 
listed if you can't be bothered typing. 

The book is designed to assist the 
ambitious BASIC programmer write 
games with examples of good 
programming practice and many of the 
more useful and or tricky subroutines 
included. It promotes logical, user 
friendly programs which are consistent 
and interesting. It contains remarks. 
suggestions and hints every step ol the 
way and leads you through the programs 
and subroutines with the maximum of 
clarity and the minimum of obtuse 
technical terms. 

One of the disks is filled with 
subroutines 78 of them while the 
other disk holds the six feature games as 
well as some subroutines. The menu 
programs show how much easier it is to 
preach than practice. There seems to be 
no error trapping and any unplanned 
response can abort the menu. The 
programs (Story. Blockout, Match. 
Concentration, Stars and Simon Says! 
anil the type of program postulated, aie 
moie suited to the entertainment and 
education of the younger person so a 
grown adult might not find them so 




Advertiser Index 

Abacus 42 

ANDAS 2. 3 

AMZ Books 71 

Auckland University Bookshop 7 1 

AWA 25 

Ban Bros 9 

Bnrsons 1 6 

Bennett's Bookshop 62 

Bns&Bvies 18 

Blackwood Gavle 1 7 

Byte Shop 6 

Coin Resources 52 

Commodore 59 

Commodore Dealers 5 1 
Compudata Media Systems 10, 11 

Computaware Retailers 48 

Compute' Advances 3 1 

Computet Came Rentals 56 

Computer Store 4(3 

Control Data 45 

David Reid Electronics 67 

Delairco Electronics 61 

Dick Smith Electronics 7 

Hnstcm Scientific 23 

Excelsiot 15 

76 BITS & BYTES Novnmber 1984 



Fountain Marketing 

Grandstand Electronics 
Grundman Electronic 

Harris Electronics 
Hewlett Packard 
Hi Tec Micro 

ISIS 

James Electronics 
John Gilbert Electronics 

K Rd 

Kane Agencies 

Manawntu Polytechnic 

S. D. Mandeno 

Manukau Computers 

Majimedia 

Microhus 

Microcomputer Specialists 

Micro Software Hire 

Molymerx 

Monaco 

Northrup 

Pacific Software 
PC '85 
P.C Power 



i B 

73 
73 

56 

5 

43 

I f 19 

56.73 

21 73 

iiO 
73 

9 
26 
33 

8 

rs 

12 
46 
69 
41 

34.35 

26 

58 
30 



The computer screen during a game 
of Wizardry. 

challenging (and though I enjoyed them, 
I'm sure some of my detractors would 
not list me as a grown adult!) 

Indeed, Fred considers the Golden 
Delicious package best suited to parents 
or teachers of younger children who 
would like to expand or create 
customised programs suited to individual 
needs rather than programmers at large. 
However, although Fred is not a parent 
and has no immediate plans to become 
one. he has often entertained little 
visitors and smaller persons with the aid 
ol his Golden Delicious games - and I'm 
sure will continue to do so in the future. 

From page 66 

most programs should run slightly faster 
with "Beia Basic". 

Obviously, a lot of thought has gone 
into the preparation of "Beta 8asic". It 
provides a myriad of new features which 
are both powerful and easy to use. I 
bought "Beta Basic" from England, 
where it is rather pricy compared with 
other Spectrum software. But now 
"Beta Basic" is being produced under 
licence in New Zealand for about $35. 

On other computers, new languages 
ana language extensions cost hundreds 
of dollars, so any sort oi BASIC 
extension would be good value at this 
price. An extension of the quality of 
"Beta Basic" is remarkable value indeed. 
In my opinion, anyone who writes 
programs on their Spectrum would be 
crazy to do without it. 

"Beta Basic" is available directly from 
Westbridge Computers, P.O. Box 7280, 
Christchurch. 



Rayuooics 

Roda Electronics 

Silk wood Manufacturing 

Sofpio 

Software Shop 

Software Supplies 

Soistat 

Supatech Electronics 

Total Compulei Sei vices 
lower Computing 
Viscount Electronics 
Warburton Frnuki 

VVhitenulls 
Whitehall Books 



73 

22 
50 
72 
65 
68 
B C 
55 

64 
36, 63 
28 
27 
29 
72 



FOR THE COMMODORE VIC-20 HOME COMPUTER. 

v C x - ■■ nansina'd 3! CoTimooorfl i lectronics t id 



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